New Beginnings
by skitzofrenic
Summary: *****ON HIATUS. Danny Phantom/Harry Potter crossover. summary inside; it's a lot better than the title, I assure you.
1. Chapter 1

**Danny, Sam and Tucker have just defeated Freakshow in one of the biggest battles the world has probably seen. Luckily for them, that never actually happened, thanks to a certain Reality Gauntlet that was destroyed in the process. But maybe dealing with a worldwide revealing of Danny's secret would've been easier to handle than _another _realm away from the human world. The three of them never went looking for trouble. It always seemed to find them instead. And when three wizards about their age come to enroll them in a school of magic, the trouble is only starting.**

skitzo should never write her own summaries. any suggestions?

**A/N - 6/24/08 - **edited; i forgot about Alicia, Maddie's sister. credit goes to Mad Half Hour for pointing it out to me :) (go check out their stuff, it's great).

* * *

"I AM THE BOX GHOST! BEWARE!"

Danny, Sam and Tucker had been chasing the box ghost for a while. He'd been so stubborn that he completely gave up on retaliating, that all he did was fly around dodging any of Danny's attacks (not that he did much of anything else)

"I AM THE BOX GHOST! YOUR CYLINDRICAL TRAPS WILL NOT WORK ON ME THIS TIME—AAH!!"

Danny sucked him into the Fenton thermos. "So," he turned to Sam "How long did he last outside the thermos this time?"

Sam checked her watch. "An hour and 36 minutes. We should really keep this on some kind of record, you know; the box ghost hall of infamy. That'd get a few laughs."

Danny gave a light chuckle & shook the Fenton Thermos, and the box ghost gave out a muffled scream. Danny shook the thermos again. "Yeah, maybe that'll teach you to stay in the Ghost Zone."

* * *

"Potter, Weasley, Granger! Downstairs now!"

Snape bellowed up the stairs of number 12 Grimmauld place, only to awaken the portrait and screams of Sirius Black's mother.

"_FILTHY MUDBLOODS! BLOOD TRAITORS! GET THEM OUT OF MY HOUSE! NOW! YOU VERMIN CREATURES!"_

Harry passed by the portrait, told her to shut up, and then walked downstairs, followed by Hermione, and all the Weasleys. Snape looked annoyed and said "Just Ronald", while at the same time staring at Ginny, Fred and George in a murderous way, and Ginny Fred and George ran upstairs.

Snape turned back to the trio. "We have to go. Dumbledore's orders."

"Where are we going professor?' Hermione looked really eager and her face lit up.

"We're going to pick up 3 students. Apparently their letters never arrived."

* * *

Danny, Sam, and Tucker were making their way back to the Manson Mansion for their usual Friday night movie marathon. They were used to trouble in Amity Park, but Danny's vibes were just not letting him have any fun.

"Danny, what's wrong, you're looking a bit shaky…are you okay? And would you like a potato chip?" Sam had a face of happiness and concern mixed together, and at the same time, she was shoving a handful of potato chips in his face.

"I'm alright, I just feel as if something's gonna happen. Nothing bad, just something."

She sighed. "Danny, every time you say that, it usually means there's a ghost coming, or you're pushing your curfew back. There's no ghost so, I'm guessing you have to go home."

"Yeah, I guess. Sorry guys, I'll see you tom—"

Tucker stopped him "Don't worry about it. We'll walk you home. C'mon."

They were walking away from Sam's house, when she pulled tucker back for a second. "Tucker why are we walking him home? He's a big boy, he can walk himself."

"Because Sam, every time Danny thinks something's going to happen, it does. He hasn't been wrong yet. And I'm not missing it, good or bad. I doubt you would've wanted to."

Sam thought for a second. "…You're right. I'm glad we came."

As the three of them walked towards Danny's house, a strange, cloaked figure came at them.

"Whoa!" Danny yelled, "Didn't see that one coming. Going ghost!" Danny's raven black hair turned white, and his blue eyes turned green. He was wearing a black and white HAZMAT with a DP logo on the front. The creature came at Sam, and started sucking at her, revealing a silver vapor coming out of Sam.

"LEAVE HER ALONE," Danny yelled as he charged towards the creature and kicked it into the dumpster. It flew away, no longer seen in the darkness of the night.

Tucker ran after Danny. "What was that?!"

Danny looked puzzled and walked towards Sam. "Are you okay?"

Sam nodded. "I'm fine, but that wasn't a ghost. When I saw it, and when it came towards me, I felt like I was never going to be happy ever again."

Danny looked at her in the eyes. "Yeah I felt the same, but then I thought of you…" Sam looked surprised, and red, very red. "…_And Tucker_. And my family…all of you…" His face had turned into a shade of deep crimson.

Sam followed Danny and Tucker to Danny's house, only to see three kids about Danny's age, and a tall man with greasy hair and a long black cloak, speaking to his parents. When his parents saw them, Jack and Maddie introduced Danny to Professor Snape, Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger.

"Kids, these kids are from a school in London. They want you three to attend!"

Danny and tucker seemed really excited, but Sam looked a little pale, well, paler.

Jack spoke up, "Professor Snape and these kids want to talk to you in private, and Danny we need to talk to you later too." Jack and Maddie closed the door behind them.

Snape turned to face them. "Which one of you is Daniel Fenton?" Danny was about to speak, but Snape continued, "also known as Danny Phantom?"

_'How does he know about that?'_ Danny thought.

"Mr. Fenton," Snape started "I am a teacher to these three students at a very special school, a school we only invite the most special of kids to attend. You kids have been accepted to Hog—"

"Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry," Sam interrupted. "That's what you're talking about right? My mom went there, she told me about it when I was younger, but when my letter never came, we just gave up."

Professor Snape looked irritated. "Yes, Samantha Manson is it?"

"It's Sam," she said strictly. "Call me Sam."

Danny stared at Sam like he just met her for the first time. "And WHEN were you planning to tell me and Tucker about this?"

Sam stepped back. "Uh, Danny, Tucker already knows."

"Why didn't you tell me? Why did only Tucker get to know?"

Sam paused. "Because the day I was planning on telling you was the day you got your ghost powers, and there was too much going on after that. I'm sorry."

"Yeah, it's okay, I guess," Danny said, but he still looked disgruntled.

Professor Snape just grunted. "Mr. Foley, take your letter, you as well Mr. Fenton, Ms. Manson."

They stepped forward and took a letter, switched them to their owner, and read them. Danny spoke the 1st paragraph aloud.

_Dear Mr. Daniel Fenton_

_We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment. We realize that you're older than the usual age to be accepted, but due to an accident that happened in March of 2006, your talents have been recognized._

_Term begins on September 1. We await your owl by no later than July 31. _

_You're sincerely,_

_Minerva McGonagall_

_Deputy Headmaster_

_DANIEL FENTON:_

_You will require:_

_-Three sets of plain work robes (black)__  
-One plain pointed hat (black) for daywear__  
-One pair of protective gloves (dragon hide or similar)  
-One winter cloak (black, silver fastenings)_

_Please note that all pupil' clothes should carry name tags_

_Mr. Fenton:_

_Due to the fact that your admittance into Hogwarts was late, Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger will be there to assist in your learning of spells, charms, and history of Hogwarts from the past 4 years._

_To you Mr. Fenton, I wish you all the luck._

_Albus Dumbledore_

Professor Snape walked away from the six kids. "Potter, Weasley, Granger, I must get back to the Order. You three are to stay with those three (he pointed to Danny Sam and Tucker), and explain to them whatever they ask you." Snape walked away, and with a loud _CRACK, _he vanished.

Danny, Sam and Tucker stared at each other, then at the letters again, then at each other, then at the letters. Over and over until someone thought of something smart to say.

"So you're telling me," Danny asked, "that I'm a wizard, but you guys didn't realize it 'til this year?"

Harry nodded at him. "I didn't believe I was a wizard either, but I was 11 when I got my letter, and I wasn't a ghost, or half."

Danny still didn't understand. "I understand why Sam would get accepted to hog...whatever, but last time I checked, me and Tucker can't do magic, and neither can our parents."

Hermione Granger handed Danny a picture. "That's where you're wrong. Your mom attended Hogwarts about 20 years ago, along with her sister Lily—"

"My mom's sister''s name is Alicia. She lives in Spittoon, Arkansas and she is certainly not a witch. There's no Lily."

Harry looked at Danny sharply "That's where you're wrong, again. Your mom is Lily Evan's twin sister." Everything was the same except the eyes.

Danny was getting mad. He wasn't looking at anyone, and his eyes had turned to the same green hd has in Ghost mode.

'_How is it possible that I don't know about this? Does Jazz know? Does DAD know?'_

"I need to go have a little chat with my mother." Danny stormed into his house, and saw Jazz sitting at the table reading a book.

"Hey little brother, what did those guys tell—"

"_Did you know mom is a witch?_"

Jazz raised an eyebrow. "Oh, get real, Danny, there's no such thing as magic."

Fortunately for Danny and Jazz, their mom was downstairs, working on some new invention and making really loud noises.

"_Mom!_ Me and Jazz need to talk to you!" he shouted down the stairs.

"I'll be right there—"

"_NOW!_"

Danny's mom was next seen at the doorway to the lab, covered in green goop, and her face seemed streaked with tears. "Danny what's wrong?"

"Hmm, I don't know. Maybe you should tell me Ms. Maddie _Evans_?"

"What did you say?"

"MAYBE, me and Jazz should be asking the questions, like when were you going to tell us that we had a dead aunt? Because—"

"AUNT ALICIA'S DEAD?!" Jazz screamed, falling out of her chair.

"No, Jazz, I'm talking about mom's twin sister Lily, y'know, the one we've heard about so much. And here's some more great news: her son is standing outside waiting for me to go to LONDON!"

"I'm sorry, but it's not like you've been completely honest Danny, or should I say Phantom?"

Danny's face went into shock. "That's different mom—"

"Oh, is it really?" she asked skeptically. "Danny you _lied_ to us! For a year you've kept secrets and lied, how are we supposed to get along as a family if you lie to us? You could have been in huge danger, there's no telling what the ectoplasm in your system could have done!"

"Well it wouldn't have made a difference, regardless! How did you expect me to come out and tell you when you guys kept making dangerous stuff all over the house? Look at your profession! It's safe to say that I was _scared out of my mind!_"

"How do you know what our reaction would've been, you didn't even know me and your father knew until after I told you?"

"Never mind that, just…AH!" Danny was at a loss for words. He and his mom had fought for 20 minutes nonstop until Danny left the house; more confused then when he walked in. Sam walked up to him, but Danny just pushed her away. "Not now Sam, I'm gonna go patrol the city, or maybe I'll just go fly around and head to The Spot. I'll see you guys later."

Sam looked into his eyes, and saw his eyes tearing up. When Danny flew away, Sam and Tucker were left with Harry, Ron, and Hermione Granger.

Ron walked next to Sam and Tucker. "Does he do that a lot?"

Sam chuckled. "No, he's just having a stressful week…trust me."

Ron laughed. "I know what that's like."

"He'll be back. So, do Danny, Tucker, and me have to go? You know, to Hogwarts?"

"Well," Ron said, "school doesn't start for another few months, so you're okay. But they sort of expected the three of you in London tomorrow. We have to teach you everything…I honestly don't know why I'm doing any of the teaching, I understand Hermione, she's top in our year, Harry's been through more than any of us, and he's also the best at Defense Against the Dark Arts..." he hesistated. "I didn't mention that his mom knows about his powers already, his mom and his dad?" Ron asked, in a don't-kill-me kind of way

"WHAT?" Sam and Tucker both yelled. "WHY'D YOU DO THAT?"

"We thought they already knew so Snape sort of blurted it out without really asking anything." Hermione said to them. "When we saw their faces, we kind of figured what had happened. Snape won't be too sorry though...I doubt he even cares. Where'd your friend Danny go?"

"His sister or his dad probably ticked him off. He went to the woods." Sam replied

"Oh. Do you want me, Harry and Ron to go get him?" Hermione asked.

"No, you'd probably get lost in there. Danny and me are the only people who know our way around in there." Sam said. "I'll find out what happened with Danny."

* * *

**A/N - **yup. 


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N** - Chapter Two. i don't even wanna talk. still pissed at myself.

* * *

Danny flew through the sky, holding back tears from his eyes. He's never spoken to his mom like that in his life, and now he was going through a guilt trip. He finally landed on a clearing in the woods that Danny, Sam and Tucker usually went to. Only Danny and Sam knew where it was though. He sat on a nearby tree stump for what felt like hours, until it started raining. He sat there, in the rain, in silence for what felt like hours. But something coming from the woods broke the silence, a twig cracked under someone's foot somewhere in the woods. Danny didn't even budge.

A gun charged up. "Don't move if you know what's good for you, Phantom."

It was Valerie. She held up an ecto gun to his face. He still hadn't moved, and when he did, it was to blink or to take in air. Valerie still had her gun up, looking confused at why he hadn't started to fight back.

"Okay, I give up. What's wrong?" Valerie asked

"Nothing, you wouldn't understand." Danny replied

"Oh, I see, some ghost problem." Valerie snapped. She opened her mouth to add more, but…

"NO, IT'S NOT SOME STUPID GHOST PROBLEM!" Danny roared. "_Dammit, Valerie, is that all you think about_?!"

He stood up, threw an ecto ray at a tree, and watched it light up in flames, pissed that he had lost control so fast. He fell back on the tree stump, tears escaping from his eyes after he'd tried so hard to keep them back.

Valerie lowered her gun about an inch. "In total seriousness here, what's wrong?" she asked, still keeping her guard up, but let it down just enough to understand him.

"I wish I could tell you," he started, "but I can't do that without telling you everything, and you're just not ready to hear the truth yet."

"What makes you say that?" Valerie asked.

"You haven't even put your gun down yet," Danny answered, sounding a bit let down.

"Oh," she said, putting her gun down and staring guiltily at the floor. "Sorry about that".

"It's not the gun, Valerie!" he snapped. "You don't trust me! You shoot first and never ask any questions! I haven't done anything wrong! In case you haven't noticed, I'm the _good guy_!"

Valerie stared into space, replaying every fight back in her head. _'So does that make me the bad guy or something?'_ she thought. _'Gotta think fast.'_

"Yeah," she said, "you're right." She sat next to him on the tree stump. "But I don't do it because I think you're the bad guy though," she said

"Oh really? Why then? WHY do you LOVE making my life just MORE complicated than it already is?" Danny asked.

"…Payback," She said, and then she put on a little smile.

Danny chuckled, remembering the fight that had caused all this tension between them. "Y'know that dog that was at your dad's lab that day? The big green one? Well, it wasn't mine. It was one of the guard dogs at your dad's lab back in it's day, and it wouldn't leave me alone until it had it's squeaky toy."

"Yeah, I know," Valerie said. "I figured that out a while back, I just got bored, and you always fought back, so that gave me something to do."

They sat there looking at the stars, when Sam, Tucker, Ron, Harry and Hermione ran out of the woods and in front of Danny.

"VALERIE!" Sam shouted, "GET AWAY FROM HIM!"

Ron, Harry and Hermione pointed their wands at her, and Tucker took out his ecto lipstick. Danny stood in front of Valerie.

"Guys, it's okay. We were just talking," Danny explained.

Tucker lowered his lipstick a bit, but Sam's hand never faltered, and Ron, Harry, and Hermione still held their wands up.

Valerie giggled. "What are you supposed to do with sticks?"

"Trust me," Danny started. "You don't want to know. _That's _actually part of the thing earlier."

"Oh…" She still looked confused.

Danny's expression changed for a second, like he was debating with himself, and finally he spoke. "Guys, can you, uh, leave? I have to tell Valerie a certain secret. You know, the big one?" Danny said.

Sam and Tucker widened their eyes, and then smiled.

"Danny, be careful. Don't push your limits." Tucker advised.

"I know what I'm doing Tucker, don't worry," Danny said.

They all left, leaving Danny and Valerie alone in the clearing.

"Valerie, what I'm about to tell you is completely classified, and I'm trusting you not to tell anyone. You probably won't take it well, seeing our history, both of them."

"Both of them?" She asked, confused. "Phantom, what are you—"

"Valerie, my name is Danny. _Call me Danny._ Listen Valerie, I don't want anything to change after this but I know it will, just don't avoid me forever okay? Next year, I'll be gone. I'm going to a different school, and I know you don't think this is important, but it is." Danny looked at Valerie, and transformed back into Danny Fenton.

"Valerie, I'm Danny Phantom."

Valerie's jaw dropped. She backed away, breaking into a run, disappearing into the woods, and then the roar of her jet sled was heard, slowly weakening, and then it became impossible to hear. Danny was left standing in the clearing alone. Tears started to from again, realizing the fact that he wasn't going to see Valerie for a whole year.

"Great job Fenton." Danny said to himself, "You should've gone after her! GEEZ, why am I so _emotional_ right now?!"

Danny walked out of the clearing, directly into Sam, who was standing around, making sure Danny was okay. The others were encouraged by Tucker to "leave the lovebirds alone".

Danny collapsed into a hug with Sam, crying his eyes out, and she hugged him back in a comforting way. The rain had stopped, and they were left alone in the woods. They went back to the tree stump, and sat there, staring at the stars, full moon above them.

"Danny," Sam said, "You know it doesn't matter what she thinks right? I mean I know she didn't take it well, but we know her well enough to know that she won't say anything. And I doubt she won't get over it. She just needs some time to get used to it, that's all."

"Yeah I know." Danny started, "I just didn't want it to go that way…I wanted her to understand. You know she says she doesn't think I'm the bad guy. She knows it wasn't my fault with the dog and she only fights me because I fight back, and because she has nothing better to do."

"Wow. What a lame excuse," Sam joked.

"Yeah, you're right," Danny said.

They sat in silence for a while, stargazing, quick looks at each other, and had the occasional blush when they met eye to eye. _'Well, since I'm confessing to everyone,' _Danny thought, _'maybe I could just tell Sam how I feel right now. It's not like its bad timing. Full moon is up, all the stars are really bright, it's perfect timing!' _

"Uh, Sam?" Danny said, his nervousness showing in his voice.

Sam looked at him, & his face was slowly turning red. "Yeah Danny?" she replied. _'This is it!' _Sam thought, _'this is the moment I've been waiting for since…'_

And instead of telling her anything, he placed a gentle kiss on her lips.

'_Finally' _Danny thought, _'no more fake out make outs.'_ He remembered their first kiss in the same spot, not that it was real, but he enjoyed it. A lot. They pulled apart when they both saw a flash through their closed eyes. It was Tucker, holding a digital camera, laughing at the picture on the screen.

"HA! CAUGHT THE LOVEBIRDS ON FILM! I'M GONNA BE RICH! SO RICH! WOOHOO!" Tucker skipped out of the woods, whooping and dancing. Sam and Danny looked extremely mad, and red, and Harry & Ron just laughed at them.

"He said he had lots of money on you two," Ron said. "One with some git named Dash ("Oh, the irony," Harry muttered), another with a Lancer, and one with Mikey, Paulina, Kwan, Star, Principal Ishiyama, a ghost named Johnny, and the whole band class. 50 "bucks", or something like that, a piece."

Danny and Sam froze. Sam got up, anger boiling up in her eyes, and ran after Tucker. The last thing they heard from her was, "FOLEY, YOU BETTER GET YOUR ASS OVER HERE IF YOU KNOW WHAT'S GOOD FOR YOU!"

Danny followed Sam, and Harry, Ron, and Hermione followed Danny.

"I wonder if this happens often," Ron said, panting after running out of the woods into the park. The three of them watched Danny and Sam chase Tucker around the park for about an hour before going home.

* * *

:sobs:


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N** - don't worry, guys, i'll get to editing once i get the chapters back up.

* * *

**Chapter 3-**

Sirius Black was pacing the floor, while he was discussing with Arthur and Molly Weasley and Severus Snape.

"How could you leave them alone there?" Sirius ranted, "Who knows what they could be doing!"

**Amity Park **

"_I LOVE TEA PARTIES!" Ron exclaimed._

_They were all dressed in Jazz's clothes, playing with Jazz's old tea set._

"_Please pass the scones old chap!" Danny said to Tucker. _

_They were all joking and laughing like the true English men and women they were, when Jazz walked in._

"_DAMMIT DANNY!"_

**Grimmauld Place**

"You're just going to have to go back to get them anyways," Sirius stated. "Or do you want me to go?"

Snape curled his lip "If you go you'll get caught, and I don't think you want that to happen."

"Well it's America, they won't recognize me anyways." Sirius pointed out, "The Death Eaters all hate America just as much as Voldemort does, and there are very few American wizards. I'll be fine, but thanks for all the loving concern," he said sarcastically. "Besides, they're in New York, and New Yorkers do everything so fast, they don't notice anything anymore."

Sirius changed into his form of a black dog, and then apparated into Danny's room.

_**Back in Amity Park…**_

"I LOVE TEA PARTIES!!"

"DANNY, GIMME MY CLOTHES BACK!"

Jazz was chasing Danny around Danny's room, while Harry, Ron and Tucker were wearing Jazz's clothes, and Sam and Hermione were sitting on the bed, talking about Sam's Save the Frog's campaign and Hermione's SPEW. Then a loud crack was heard and a black dog appeared in the middle of the room. Harry and Ron stared at the dog and then looked down at their dresses, and the dog looked at them like they were retarded. Jazz was on top of Danny, about to punch him in the face and Sam and Hermione were staring at Tucker, Ron, and Harry.

"Uh…HI Sirius!" Harry said enthusiastically, "We're not doing anything wrong…the dresses, are, uh…ah forget it we don't have an excuse…wait a minute, SIRIUS? WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE! YOU'RE GONNA GET SEEN AND THEN YOU'RE GOING TO AZKABAN!"

The dog rolled it's eyes and gave a skeptical bark...if that were possible. Danny, Sam and Tucker looked confused. They stared at the dog, which then began to form into a human. Once he was completely transformed, he turned to Danny, who was frozen under Jazz, who was frozen in her spot staring at him.

"Hello. You must be Danny down there." Sirius said, "I'm Sirius Black."

"Hi. I'd shake your hand, but I'm kind of stuck," Danny chuckled.

Sirius sighed. "So, are you going to Hogwarts then?"

Danny's face dropped. "And I was just starting to get my mind off of that."

Hermione lay next to where Jazz was pinning Danny down. "C'mon Danny, it's not that bad. It's actually really fun. Except for Snape. He's mean."

"Danny, you know it would be kind of interesting," Sam started, "My mom told me that it was really great when she was there, how much could it have changed?"

Harry opened his mouth to say something, but Sirius warned him against it.

"Let them find out themselves," Sirius whispered to Harry.

Danny was still talking to Sam, and Tucker joined in. They were arguing for about 10 minutes when it looked like the two boys had made up their minds.

"Alright, alright, we'll go! Jeez, Sam."

* * *

"Severus, you should have stopped him! WHO KNOWS IF HE'S CAUGHT OR NOT!" Molly was arguing with Snape after Sirius had left. He'd been gone for half an hour, when he apparated back into the living room of Grimmauld Place

"SIRIUS YOU IDIOT!" Molly yelled, "WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?"

"I was thinking that Danny and his friends are going to Hogwarts." Sirius said, "Danny and the other boy were seriously doubting it, until that girl convinced him, probably his girlfriend. The point is, they're going to Hogwarts, which means they're coming here first, which means we have to tell them what's been going on lately, with the Order. Should we ask Dumbledore?"

"No, Dumbledore's at the Hog's Head, he probably doesn't want to be disturbed right now."

"Okay so it's up to us three, Tonks, and Mad-Eye if he gets here." Sirius added

"So when _are_ they getting here?" Arthur asked.

"They said pretty soon, Danny said he had some things to take care of," Sirius said "and there was a matter of the other boy (Tucker, I think his name was), and money. That's when Sam and Danny chased him. So they should be here soon."

* * *

"See you later Danny!" Sam and Tucker shouted back at him. Danny was in his room, watching Hermione pack his things with his wands, still completely amazed.

"Wow that's cool. I think I should yell at my mom for not using magic. This is really awesome…speaking of my mom, I need to go talk to her…you just keep…doing that…" Danny left the room, and walked into the lab and saw his mom typing on her computer.

"Uh, mom?" Danny walked to her. She had been crying.

"Yes, dear?" She replied, her voice weak.

Danny took a deep breath and tried to control his breathing after that. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to explode like that, it's just that, when you find out you're mom's a witch from someone other than your mom, you might get a little upset."

"Yeah I know Danny," Maddie said "I just didn't know how to tell you guys, sort of like how you couldn't tell me and your father about Phantom…are you really Phantom?"

"Yes, I am. I just didn't know to tell you and Dad..." Danny transformed into Phantom, and his mom watched him in awe of what he just did.

"HEY IT'S PHANTOM! A.K.A. MY SON! I'M PHANTOM'S DAD! HA! ISN'T EVERYONE JEALOUS! BWAHAHAHA" Jack had just seen Danny transform. His dad was proud of Danny, even though they were against him at first. When his dad found out from Snape about Danny, sure he felt guilty, but the guilt was suppressed as he wanted to know all the tricks his multi-talented son could do.

"SO DANNY? WHAT DID THOSE GUYS IN BLACK WANT? _They weren't from the government were they?_" Jack roared.

"Uh, they want me, Sam, and Tucker to go to Hogwarts." Danny replied, somewhat nervously

"GREAT! ARE YOU GOING?" He asked, just as loud as before.

"Well, Sam convinced me and Tucker to go, but it's really up to you guys…"

"Wait a minute, how are Sam and Tucker tied into this?" Maddie asked

"Sam's mom's a witch, and Tucker is just to support us, but this girl, Hermione, told me that Tucker's grandparents were Aurons or something like that," Danny explained.

"Aurors, Danny. Dark wizard catchers." Maddie said

"Look, I'm learnin' already," Danny joked. "So...can I go?" Danny asked

"Sure Danny, I don't think I have a problem."

"SO I GET A SUPERHERO SON/WIZARD? COOL!" Jack roared, again.

Danny ran upstairs to his room, and saw Jazz sitting on the bed, watching Hermione pack his things, her jaw dropped, watching the clothes float across the room.

"Danny, we need to hurry up and meet up at Tucker's because he won't be able to pack fast enough. Sam has her mother, so she's fine." Hermione explained.

Danny said all his goodbyes ("Don't you _dare_ fail any classes!" Jazz demanded) quickly, knowing that he would have more time to see them during the school year and that they were on a tight schedule. They rushed to Tucker's house, got his things packed, and then went to Sam's house and waited in their living room for Sam.

"Sammykins, don't forget to send us an owl when you get there, and tell everyone in the Order thingy that you mentioned that the Mansons say 'Hi'." Her mom nagged. "Oh, and don't do anything…stupid." Her mom glanced at Harry, Ron, and Hermione, like if they were some kind of virus. "How are you six going to get there to London, anyways?"

"Floo powder." Ron responded. "Fluffy gave us a bag back at Danny's house. Well, lets get going."

"Ron, they're new at this, remember when I first traveled through floo powder?" Harry said. "I ended up in Knockturn Alley. Not pretty."

"Yeah you're right…well you're the only one with a decent broom, mine is all...old and stuff, and it's in London. The only way we're gonna get to that is by summoning it, and I don't think people are going to think a lonesome flying broom is natural." Ron said. "Unless the fabulous Hermione has something in that brain of hers that can get the broomsticks here soon.

"Actually…" Hermione started.

"I knew it," Ron said. He turned to Danny, Sam, and Tucker. "Hermione has a spell for everything. It's actually kind of scary sometimes..."

Danny stepped forward. "Well, I can fly and carry about 600 pounds." The others looked incredulous. "What? It's true!"

"Wait a minute, fly? What is he talking about Sammy?" Sam's mom said.

"Oh, Danny's also Phantom. And if you tell anyone, we're forced, and prepared to erase your short-term memory," She said to her parents and grandma. "So don't do anything stupid." Sam said.

"Nicely handled Sam." Danny complemented.

"Well, that's it then." Sam said to her parents, whose jaws had dropped at her last statement. Her grandmother was just smiling to herself and said 'I knew it' under her breath.

"I'm off…finally" She whispered the last part to herself.

"Next stop," Harry said, "Number 12 Grimmauld Place".

* * *

fhduancwadsagda i'm telling you. scolding is the way to goo.


	4. Chapter 4

The six teens had been flying for hours it seemed. The arrangements they had made weren't so bad; Danny holding Sam, Tucker, and his trunk; Harry holding Sam's trunk; and Hermione, and Ron holding Tucker's trunk. Danny, Sam, and Tucker followed Harry, Ron, and Hermione to an abandoned street, with all the streetlights out. Harry walked in between houses number eleven and thirteen. Twelve seemed to not exist.

Harry opened a piece of paper, and looked extremely concentrated on it. A large, old house had appeared in front of them. Harry turned to Danny, Sam and Tucker and said, "Welcome to…here. We'll talk inside. Go in."

They walked inside to a large house with two stories, and heads hung on the wall. They walked past the kitchen and into the living room. Professor Snape was there, along with two other people they'd never met. Hermione, Ron, and Harry had walked into the living room after the Amity Park Trio.

"Wow," Danny said, followed by an "Oh my god," from Tucker, and a "This is my kind of house," from Sam.

"What is this place?" Danny asked.

"This," the man with red hair and glasses started, "is Number 12 Grimmauld Place. Untraceable by the Floo network, and is the meeting place of the Order of the Phoenix, but I'm pretty sure that you know all about that. I'm Arthur Weasley." He held out his hand and Danny and Sam shook it, and Tucker just slapped it.

"Sorry, what's the Order of the…what you said?" Tucker asked.

Arthur turned to Harry. "You were supposed to tell them."

"I know," Harry said, "We never got around to it."

"Too busy playing dress-up?" Mr. Weasley joked. Harry's eyebrows knotted together before Mr. Weasley continued. "Sirius told us."

Harry blushed.

After all the introductions were made, they had to wait for a few more members of the Order to arrive. While they waited, the lady named Molly Weasley walked off to the kitchen, telling Arthur she was going to set up for a meeting later that night.

They were all talking at this point, telling ages, hobbies, life stories etc., when they heard a loud crash, followed by a loud "SORRY!", then a loud screeching erupted from the hallway.

A woman with pink hair came down the stairs. "I dropped the umbrella stand again, it's always in my way—who are these three?" She pointed to Danny, Sam, and Tucker. Before they could answer, though, she continued. "Oh you're the new guys! I'm Tonks. Pleased to meet you" She shook their hands.

"Her name's really Nymphadora," Arthur pointed out. "She doesn't like it though, so she goes by her surname."

"Oh please," She said, swatting the air. "Listen to my name—Nymphadora…it's hideous." Tonks pointed out.

The screeching was still continuing and Sirius, Molly and Arthur went upstairs to make it stop. The six teenagers followed, trying to see if they could help.

"_MUDBLOODS, BLOOD TRAITORS, HALF BREEDS ALL OVER THE PLACE!! GET OUT! GET OUT OF THE ANCIENT HOUSE OF BLACK! YOU TRAITOROUS FIENDS!!"_ The lady in the picture screamed.

"Kids, meet my mother," Sirius said to those still in shock of the source of the noise. "We've tried to take her down, but it has a permanent stick charm, so there's nothing we can do…don't get offended, she hates anyone who's not a 'pure-blood', except for the Weasleys. Them she doesn't like."

Danny and Tucker had no idea that Sirius was talking...they were more interested in the fact that his mother's portrait was moving.

"How the hell…What the…This is too weird." Tucker said.

"What?" Harry said, but then realized what they were talking about when he saw them gawking at the mirror. "Oh, yeah the moving pictures. All the pictures in the Wizarding world do that."

"That is so awesome! Sam you never told me this!" Tucker said

"Yeah, I thought you knowing my mom was a witch was enough…" Sam replied

"_FILTHY HALF BREEDS! MUDBLOODS AND TRAITORS EVERYWHERE! SIRIUS HAS BETRAYED US ALL! HE HAS! I REFUSE TO HOLD SUCH COMPANY! GET OUT OF MY HOUSE, ALL OF YOU!" _Danny felt offended at the half-breed comment, but then he realized that the portrait was calling everyone nasty names.

"Danny, don't feel offended." Arthur explained, apparently catching on to the fact that he was offended, "You're not the only half breed here, just be lucky you can control it." He walked away, a smile on his face. Danny looked a bit confused, but he decided to drop it and help with the portrait.

"Can I try?" Danny asked.

"Sure, but you probably won't get anywhere, we've tried everything," Hermione explained.

"I'm pretty sure you haven't tried this," Danny said. He turned the picture intangible, and pulled it off the wall.

"Yeah, I had a feeling it would work."

They saw the portrait in his hand, and everyone but Sam and Tucker were staring at them opened mouthed and wide-eyed.

"Oh. My. Goodness." Tonks said, enunciating every word. "THAT WAS SO COOL! You know it's a handy thing having a ghost kid in the house," she said, winking at Danny. "What other tricks can you do? Besides keep your body solid."

"Well, I'd show you, but your house might fall in." Danny said.

"I doubt that, but if you really don't want to show us, I understand," Tonks said, somewhat disappointed, in a fake way. She walked away sighing, using reverse psychology on him. "You're probably not that great anyways…"

"HEY!" Danny complained. "I'm plenty good!"

"Then prove it" Tonks challenged, getting more and more excited with the passing minute.

"Fine. I'm Going Ghost!" Danny shouted, his battle cry startling a few of the house's inhabitants.

And for the first time since he had gotten to the house, Danny had transformed. The people in the house gasped and stared in awe at Danny Phantom. The first thing he showed them, his Ghostly Wail. He turned towards the fireplace, and let it out, forcing everyone to close his or her ears. He didn't keep it going for as long as he could, because he knew the house most definitely _would_ fall in. Once he'd finished, everything on the wall of the fireplace was completely destroyed, and all the photos of Sirius' family were burnt. Everyone in the room took their hands off of their ears, and stared in amazement, as Danny turned to face them. He looked dizzy, and almost fell, but still remained in ghost form. He stood up straight, and looked straight at Tonks. "What was that about me being not that great again?"

Tonks was at a loss for words. It took her a minute to compose a sentence. "Uh…wow, I guess. What else can you do?"

Danny laughed, "It took me a while to perfect this:" Danny concentrated for a while, then created 2 duplicates of himself, held them for about 3 seconds, and then absorbed them again. "I can shoot ectoplasm from my hands, I can go invisible, intangible, and I can fly, but that was kind of obvious wasn't it? Well, I can't think of anything anymore, so—"

"My goodness, what are you children still doing up?" Mrs. Weasley asked urgently. "Up to bed, right now. Danny, Tucker, you'll be sharing a room with Harry and Ron, the bunkbeds were placed there yesterday, and Sam you're sharing with Hermione and Ginny—"

"Who's Ginny?" Tucker interrupted. Ron and Harry scowled defensively at him.

"She's my daughter." Molly replied, and then jumped right back into her bedroom plans. "Fred and George are in their rooms, working on another crazy invention, so I suggest we stay away from them, for now. They never listen to me. Goodnight kids."

Danny and Tucker still had about a million questions, but they decided to leave them for later. The six kids walked up the stairs, and they all entered Harry and Ron's room. There were two bunk beds and four trunks in the room. Two of them were already opened and had clothes spilling out of them. There wasn't much else in the room. Hermione had gone off to get Ginny, when a loud crack behind Danny caught everyone's attention.

Danny whipped around and saw two very tall, red-haired twins holding a handful of what looked like a purple Snickers bar. They looked down at Danny, and then looked at each other. "Hello mate," they said,

"I'm Fred—"

"And I'm George."

"You must be Danny Fenton—"

"And Danny Phantom—"

"Sweet."

They spoke one after another without any warning as if their minds were synced, making everyone in the room look back and forth. "Care to purchase one of our Skiving Snack boxes?" One of them asked. "They contain Fever Fudge, Puking Pastilles, and Nosebleed Nougat. Guaranteed to get you out of any class, any event and any—."

"Oh come off it you two. He's been up all night carrying his friends and his trunk, I'm pretty sure he doesn't need you shoving business opportunities down his throat—"

"Nosebleed Nougat?" Tucker interrupted, much to Hermione's dismay. "Awesome!"

He walked over to Fred and George Weasley, and browsed through their skiving snack boxes. They seemed to be getting along very well, and Ginny was starting to get to know Sam. Danny had plopped down onto his bed, and just stared up at the ceiling (he took the top bunk). It had been 15 minutes, and he still hadn't moved. He was thinking about the week before, when Freakshow had strapped his parents and friends on a doomed rollercoaster.

_**Flashback; **_**Reality Trip**

"_Well here they are, alive, for now! AHAHAHA!" Freakshow laughed maniacally. He strapped his friends and family to a rollercoaster with "death trap" written all over it. _

"_You lied to me!" Danny exclaimed._

"_Yes, yes I did. Goodie for me. But it wouldn't be drama if I didn't give you a sporting chance," He set Danny free, "and an audience, a BIG AUDIENCE!" _

_An audience suddenly appeared around the two of them, cheering clowns filling all of the seats. If it wasn't for the fact that his family and friends were doomed he'd be destroying the gauntlet, just to rid the world of the bleachers and clowns.  
_

_Danny flew as fast as he could towards the rollercoaster trying to get to them before the death traps did._

"_Ladies and gentleman, freaks of all ages. May I direct your attention to the center ring where Danny Phantom, a.k.a. Danny Fenton, will attempt to rescue his friends and family from a ghastly doom of my own construction." Freakshow announced. _

_Danny had made his way to the front of the rollercoaster, when Freakshow turned him into orange jelly. He was stuck in front of the rollercoaster, seconds before it collided with him._

_"Hey!" He exclaimed. "What did you—oh man…" _

_The rollercoaster slammed into the jell-o Danny._

"_Oh! And to be stopped in return by the master of all Reality." Freakshow said._

"_Danny!" Sam shouted._

"_It can't be!" Tucker exclaimed. _

_In the last car of the roller coaster, the loud sobs of Mrs. Fenton were ringing in their ears._

"_What's that? You want more? Well, then, I'll give you more! MUCH MORE! BWAHAAHAHAA!!" Freakshow said to the audience._

_At that moment, he used the reality gauntlet to change everything. Mount Rushmore became Mount Freakshow, The highways because loop-de-loops, and the white house was turned into a circus tent._

"_It's all mine now. My revenge, you're nightmare!"_

_The world had been completely transformed. Everything went from normal to circus theme in about 15 seconds._

"_There! A Kingdom fit for a freak, and a Freakdome fit for a king!"_

"_AAAHH!!" Everyone on the rollercoaster had been yelling their heads off for a while, when the orange sticky mass of jell-o had formed back together into Danny Phantom, and soon he was off, flying next to the rollercoaster, facing the first death trap: the fire-spitting jack-in-the-box. Right as they were going to get roasted to a nice crisp, Danny had put up an ecto shield to prevent them from getting burned. Danny's parents had burst with joy._

"_DANNY!" Jazz shouted. _

"_HE'S ALIVE!" Jack bellowed, a little louder than Jazz. _

"_HE HAS GHOST ENVY! USE PSYCHOLOGYY!!" Jazz shouted at him._

"_Psychology? That's it!" Danny said to himself, as the big jack-in-the-box poked his rather ridiculous head out of the box again. The rollercoaster was coming to 2 giant bricks, slamming into each other in a rhythmatic way. When they had slammed together, Danny had blown them up with his ecto beam. He gave himself a satisfactory smile, when Freakshow, about a million times larger than he should've been, was standing behind him._

"_Oh no, you do not get to leave this world with a smile" Freakshow said._

"_Why wouldn't I smile?" Danny asked him, "So what if you're the most powerful human on earth? No matter what you do, I'm half-ghost, and uh, you're not."_

_**Flashback Ends**_

Danny couldn't take remembering the rest of the events of the day. He shook his head and then sat upright. He sat on his bed, and stared at his hands. There were so many painful things that haunted his nightmares, and he could never get away from them. He started to think about Dan Phantom and Pariah Dark, but he didn't want to bring the memories back again. Sam realized something was wrong with him, so she climbed the ladder to his bed and sat next to him

"What's wrong Danny?" Sam asked.

"Nothing…I'm just thinking." He replied, "About last week."

"Danny, don't worry about it anymore. No one but me, you, Tucker and Jazz know, besides the people here, and they can't say anything unless they want to expose themselves. And Freakshow's in solitary confinement, which is always a fun thing to think about." Sam leaned over and gave him a kiss, and smiled. "You'll be fine."

Danny had turned pink. He looked into Sam's eyes, and he felt it, fireworks, just waiting to be exploded. He leaned in, and started to kiss her.

It felt so normal, like if it was supposed to be this way; the way his lips molded around hers, a perfect piece to a million-piece puzzle. He knew where to put his hands, and she knew how to keep him there, and it seemed like forever until someone noticed them together on the bed

Of course, it had to be Tucker, who whipped out his PDA and took a lot of ten-megapixel pictures with his PDA.

"I'm not even in Amity Park anymore, and I'm STILL going to be filthy rich."

Danny, who caught every word he said, sent a small, harmless beam of his ecto energy towards Tucker's PDA, and it hit it's mark, right in the middle of the screen. Tucker's face had turned paler, and he dropped the PDA, making his way to kill Danny. He had found this all very amusing, and switched to his ghost mode, took over Tucker's body, and started twirling and prancing around like a ballerina while Sam whipped out her own camera and started filming. Hermione had grabbed Tucker's PDA and fixed it using the same repairing spell she's used on Harry's glasses countless of times.

Once Danny had gotten back to his seat next to Sam, he was laughing, clutching his sides at the view of Tucker trying to stand up straight after the dizzying twirls he had gone through, holding his head in his hands.

Hermione handed him his PDA, and then said goodnight to everyone, as she was feeling "a little too drowsy for her taste". Ginny followed, and Sam kissed Danny one more time, his cheeks once again turning a light pink. She walked out of the room, catching up with Ginny and Hermione, and then Fred and George apparated back to their rooms.

As Danny changed into his pajamas, he hoped there wouldn't be any nightmares. Bringing back those memories never did him any good.

After Dan disappeared, Danny had been having horrible nightmares about him. They had stopped after the first few weeks, thanks to Sam and Tucker pestering him into "emotional release", but if during any moment of the day he'd spent thinking about Dark Dan for more than 5 minutes, the nightmares would come back, and recently that had been happening a lot, but the dream had changed.

In the dream, he saw himself in the thermos, being let out by a snakelike man. Only when the man addressed him, he used the name Dan Phantom, which is what made Danny wake up screaming. The man used magic, though, through a wand. And before today, Danny had never given it much thought. Now that he knew all that the snakeman did was certainly plausible, he'd been worried.

_'Well one thing's for sure…' _Danny thought, _'Sam and Tucker won't let me forget about the dreams.'_

* * *

_**Dream**_

_"Give me the thermos, old ghost. I do not have time to play your silly little games."_

_Voldemort was trying to steal the thermos containing Dan Phantom from Freakshow, Vlad on one side, and various Death Eaters on the other. Clockwork, who was wondering how they had gotten around being caught beforehand by the giant mirror-like device he used to see into the future, was losing miserably, his time staff thrown across the floor. _

_Voldemort was seconds away from obtaining the thermos, with Vlad and Lucius Malfoy keeping the Ghost of Time away from him. Finally after an hour of fighting, he managed to grab the thermos._

_"FINALLY" Voldemort shouted, "THE THERMOS IS MINE!"_

_Vlad and the Death Eaters had quickly ran towards Voldemort, and flew him out of the Ghost Zone as fast as they could._

_"Yes…the boy's biggest weakness…his future." Voldemort said. "Harry Potter and Danny Phantom will not stand a chance against the greatest sorcerer in the world, when he has 3 of the most powerful ghosts close at hand. Watch out Potter, here comes Voldemort…"_

* * *

**A/N** - the author would like to take this moment to smack herself silly.


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N** - Yeah, I know, I'm an idiot. On with the show!

* * *

"AH!"

Danny had woken up from the dream again. He looked around and saw everyone was still sleeping, except for Harry, who was sitting on the windowsill stroking Hedwig. She went out and took flight, hoping to maybe find a late night dinner on the way. Danny grunted and banged back onto the bed, as Harry turned around, knowing all too well the feeling of waking up screaming.

"Bad dream?" He asked.

Danny sighed. "You have no idea."

"Actually I might. But let's talk about that later. I was hoping to ask you a few questions, if you didn't mind."

"Go ahead. I have some questions too…I'm still confused—", Danny's ghost sense had gone off. "Dammit. I'm not even in Amity Park and these stupid ghosts are still around. I'll be right back." He said to Harry. He transformed into Danny Phantom, holding what looked like a thermos, and flew out the window

Harry stared out the window, hearing loud yells about boxes and doom, and then a suction sound. Danny then flew in and transformed again, changing back into his normal form.

"So what is it that you wanted to ask me?"

"How'd you get those powers?"

Danny sighed and chuckled. "I got in a lab accident. See, my parents are famous ghost hunters. They keep stuff around the house that's dangerous to me now, but before the accident, they were just like play things…my parents never figured out why the ghost portal hadn't worked when they first used it, but then Sam got me wanting to check it out, and I think I turned it on while I was still inside. To this day, I am still not completely sure what happened. All I know is that whatever happened caused ectoplasm to fuse to my DNA molecules, and then a whole new me came out. Danny Phantom."

"So, you just recently got these powers then?" Harry asked

"Well, not really…I got them about a year ago I think…but whatever. I mean I've seen a lot of things, and I've only had these powers for a year, but I'm powerful…I mean, I'm not trying to brag, it's just that I can't believe half the things I've done…I guess it has something to do with the half-ghost business, but most of the time I feel like I just get ridiculously lucky," Danny said.

"Yeah I know what you mean…it's like everyone thinks you're this great guy because of all that you've done, but most of the time you just get lucky, and you don't want any of the credit."

The two guys both sighed. Danny sat on the floor against a bedpost and Harry continued staring out the window, either waiting for Hedwig to get home, or just gazing. Danny sighed again, but this time, he got up and grabbed some paper and a pen. He sat there for a second but then started writing.

_Valerie,_

_I'm pretty sure that what you found out last night was a bit of a shock…okay maybe more than a bit. Valerie I want you to know that I told you because I'm not going to Casper High next year, and I thought you should know you weren't going to have to chase Danny Phantom around. I'm going to a…different school. It's kind of hard to explain, because I can't really tell you, or not now anyways, and I shouldn't, regardless. This is something I need to tell you to your face. I'm going to a school in London, and I don't know when I'll see you this year…I'll probably come to visit a lot, and I know I'll have to if you need to talk. I'm not even sure how I'm going to send this at the moment!_

_Valerie, I know things probably won't be the same, ever, but don't hate me because of this. I didn't choose this for myself. You don't have to like it, I just want you to accept it. I told you because I thought you were ready to hear it, even if it took a while for you to put your gun down. I mean I know it's going to take some getting used to, just, try not to kill me every time you see me. I get that enough from my parents, or used to anyways. Yeah, they found out last night._

_Valerie, I don't want anything to change, but I know it will, and I'm ready to face the music._

_Are you?_

_Danny_

He reread the note a few times before storing it away and thought about how he was going to send it.

He looked over to Harry; he was snoring slightly over the obnoxiously loud snores from Ron and Tucker with his head resting on the side of the window.

Danny crawled up to his bed, hoping to catch some more sleep when he heard the same loud _crack_ from last night: Fred and George Weasley had appeared. Danny had looked over from the edge of the bed at the twins, saw Harry jerk awake and heard mumbles about never getting any sleep coming from Ron and Tucker.

"Hello mates."

"Breakfast's ready."

"Best not be late."

"Mum won't be too happy."

They apparated out of the room and into the kitchen and they heard a scream, and then some loud yells about abusing magic and apparating everywhere from Mrs. Weasley. Ron and Tucker groaned in their sleep and turned over. Danny yawned.

"How long was I up for?" He asked himself aloud.

"You haven't slept yet?" Harry asked Danny.

Danny shook his head. "I was thinking too hard to sleep."

Harry stifled a yawn while asking his question, "Didn't you say you had something to ask me last night?"

"Oh yeah," Danny remembered. The corner of his lips pulled up in a smile. "So, we're like cousins now, right?"

They both laughed. "Yeah, I guess we are," Harry answered.

The boys got up and woke up Ron and Tucker, then walked out the door straight into Hermione, Ginny and Sam, who started giggling at the sight of Danny. He raised an eyebrow and let them pass in front, except for Sam. He pulled her aside into another hallway.

"Hey Sam…what did you tell them?"

"N-nothing Danny…Seriously, t-they were just b-being silly. F-forget about it…" Sam said, through suppressed laughter.

"Yeah, sure" he said sarcastically, rolling his eyes. "Now do you want to tell me the truth?"

Sam sighed. She pulled out of her back pocket of the jeans she was wearing the picture of Danny and Tucker sleeping and hugging each other that day when they first met Skulker at the zoo. He reached for it, but she pulled it out of his reach just in time. He grabbed her and reached for the picture, but, again, he failed. They were fighting for the picture for a few minutes when Danny landed up against the wall, Sam pinning him down.

They stared into each other's eyes; Danny's alight with excitement as he tried to wrestle out of her grip without hurting her and Sam's amethyst boring into his blue.

He smiled at her and crashed his lips into hers with no shame. He couldn't help it; before when she looked at him like that, it had driven him close to the point of damning everything and just whisking her away. Now that he knew what her kisses were capable of, her stares made him lose control of himself.

They pulled apart, Sam's blush pulling a cocky smile onto Danny's face as they looked around for Tucker and his PDA. When they found none, Danny took her small hands in his.

"Sam, I've liked you since…about the 8th grade. I've known for a while that you felt the same way…so why did it take us two _agonizingly long_ years to do something about it?"

Sam sighed happily, still recovering from his kiss. "I don't know. I guess I was waiting for you to make your move, trying to prove everyone wrong about your cluelessness, and that didn't work out too wonderfully."

Danny sent her a fake glare, before they slowly started to make their way to the stairs.

"So," Sam started, "what exactly are we now? I mean, boyfriend and girlfriend is kind of…cheesy."

Danny laughed. "Yeah, and I'm not exactly a boy," he joked while Sam shook her head sarcastically. "Well…how about we're just two best friends that happen to hold hands and make out when no one looks?"

Sam threw her head back and laughed aloud with him. "Yeah, sure. And if anyone asks, you're my significant other."

"Geez, Sam, you make it sound like we're married," Danny said, pushing the mental picture of Sam in a white dress meeting him at the altar out of his mind.

"Well I need some way to make sure that all the other girls back off. You're not exactly the same shrimpy little kid from the beginning of freshman year. Ghost hunting definitely helped you out in the long run."

Danny blushed and looked down while she chuckled and pulled him faster towards the stairs.

They went downstairs to grab some breakfast and saw Tonks making her nose all funny. They stared for a bit, eyebrows raised, and then wondered if they've ever seen something weirder. When they decided that was a yes, they grabbed two chairs next to each other and sat down. Tucker greeted them and took another strip of bacon from the bacon tray.

Sirius and a very tired looking man walked downstairs and sat in the two chairs closest to them. Sirius laid his head on the table and probably drifted to sleep while the man was rubbing his eyes.

Mrs. Weasley stared at the two sympathetically, but she still prodded them both until they jerked up and sat up straight.

"Kids," she said to Danny, Sam and Tucker, "this is Remus Lupin. He was the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher back in Harry, Ron, and Hermione's third year at Hogwarts."

Remus smiled at them and waved half-heartedly at their end of the table. "Pleased to meet you," he said. "I'm sorry I'm not exactly enthusiastic at the moment, I've actually been very anxious to meet you three. I'm just very tired."

The whole table sobered for a moment, which was broken by Sirius. "So," he started, "When are you three going to go and get your stuff for your wizard learning thingy?"

Danny frowned. "Wait a sec we're just going to jump into learning stuff? We don't get to ask any questions? I'm still really confused. Oh, and how do we send mail?"

"Owls send the mail." Harry said. "As for the other stuff, I have no idea. You have to ask the adults that question."

Sirius sighed. "What is it that you want to know?"

"Now hold on just a moment Sirius" Molly said, "We can't tell them everything you know. We need to put the same restrictions we put for Harry. Ginny, upstairs, now."

She groaned and slid herself out of her chair, grabbing some toast and mumbling about never being able to do anything around this place.

"Just let him ask his questions and then you guys can leave for Diagon Alley," Sirius said tiredly.

Danny furrowed his eyebrows. "Where can I send something back to New York?" **(AN)**

"Follow me." Harry said. The two boys walked up the stairs into their room and Harry explained the concept of sending mail by owl. Danny rummaged through his trunk and pulled out the letter that he had written for Valerie. He tied it to Hedwig and she flew off, a white speck against the clear blue sky.

The boys went back downstairs and took their original seats at the table. Danny sighed.

"Okay so that's taken care of. So, what's this Order that everyone keeps talking about?"

"The Order of the Phoenix" Sirius managed to get out after a yawn, "is a secret society that Dumbledore—"

"Who's Dumbledore?" Tucker asked.

"He's the greatest sorcerer in the world, and the headmaster of Hogwarts, which is where you're going to be going to school." Sirius said. "Well anyways the Order of the Phoenix is a secret society that Dumbledore founded and is in charge of. It's full of people who fought against Voldemort 14 years ago."

Ignoring the shudders and sharp intakes of breath at the world "Voldemort" or whatever, Danny continued with his questions. "Who's Voldything?"

"_Voldemort _is pretty much the most evil wizard in the world at the moment. Most people in the Wizarding world are scared to say his name, but pretty much everyone in the Order does, except for the Weasleys," he said with a smirk.

Sam sighed. "So, long story short, you brought us here to fight the bad guy?"

Sirius nodded.

Tucker grunted loudly from his seat. "We do that at home every day! What's the difference? He has magical powers? That'd probably be a step UP to what we usually have to deal with!"

Danny sent Tucker a glare. "Sorry, he's whiny. So what's the deal with Voldemort anyways?"

"Most people thought he was gone, after what had happened with Harry and his parents, but he's back, and unfortunately everyone thinks Harry is gone off his nut for thinking so. He was the only surviving person there when he came back, besides the Death Eaters, who're Voldemort's followers."

"What happened with Harry's parents?"

"That's another story." Sirius said, glancing momentarily at Harry.

"So you don't really know where Voldymold is?"

"No." Sirius said, looking a bit foolish.

"Alright…so where do we look first?" Danny asked.

Harry's face lit up. "So you're going to help us?"

"Of course. It's not like I can ignore a cry for help. I have a serious case of 'hero complex' since I got these powers," Danny said, grumbling to himself afterwards.

Tucker laughed loudly while Sam sniggered. "So, what do we do first?" she asked in general.

"First," Mrs. Weasley cut in, "we need to get you three your wands. And you need to start training. We need to wait for Alastor though. There's something shaking in the upstairs cupboard. I'm pretty sure it's a boggart ("what's a boggart?" Tucker asked), but I don't want to take any chances. And there are some doxies in the curtains that you need to help me with Sirius. The kids are going to be out shopping for their supplies once the letters arrive which should be about—ah, here they are."

Just then, an owl flew in holding 6 letters; one for Fred and George, Ginny, Harry, Ron, and Hermione. Fred took the letters and passed them around to each owner, taking his and George's up to their room. "We'll open these upstairs, mum," they said in sync.

"Us too," Hermione said as she grabbed the letters and Harry and Ron, and dragged them upstairs, followed by Danny and Sam, and then by a chuckling Tucker.

The Amity trio walked over to Tucker's bunk and sat on his bed. They watched the others open their letters as they talked quietly amongst themselves.

"So what's a boggart?" Tucker asked.

"It's a creature that shows you your worst fears." Sam said quickly. "Are you sure we're going to do this Danny? I mean after what happened last week I thought—"

"I'm not about to let that stand in the way of this. Vlad has no idea this is happening, and all of my major enemies are locked up. Not Skulker and Ember and Spectra, them I can handle, but Dan and Pariah. As long as those two are kept safe wherever they are, I'm good."

"Yeah about that…Danny, how do you know he hasn't gotten out yet?"

Danny chuckled at the thought. "Clockwork and I have him locked up tight. He's in the Fenton thermos, that's surrounded by a ghost shield, that's surrounded by another 3 human and ghost shields. It'll take him ages to get out of that." Danny reassured them. "Besides, Clockwork knows everything. If he sees that Dan somehow gets out of the thermos, he'll find a way to prevent it."

"Wow" Tucker said. "You guys came prepared. I would've never—"

Harry started yelling about something. They turned to look at them and listened.

"—BEEN STUCK AT THE DURSLEYS FOR A MONTH AND I'VE HANDLED MORE THAN YOU TWO'VE EVER IMAGINED! FOR WEEKS I'VE BEEN STUCK IN PRIVET DRIVE, NICKING PAPER OUT OF BINS TO TRY TO FING OUT WHAT'S BEEN GOING ON! I SUPPOSE YOU'VE BEEN HAVING A REAL LAUGH HAVEN'T YOU, ALL HOLED UP IN HERE TOGETHER. WHO SAVED THE SORCERER'S STONE? WHO GOT RID OF RIDDLE? (Tucker chuckled, then got a sharp elbow in his stomach) I'VE GOTTEN PAST DRAGONS AND SPHINXES AND—"

"Wait, there are really such things as dragons in the magical world?" Danny asked eagerly.

"Yes" Harry replied bitterly. "And they're bloody hard to beat."

"What I wouldn't give to fight a dragon instead of what I usually have to deal with, but from the magical realm I mean…anything besides those stupid ghosts." Danny muttered to himself. He fell back on the bed and gave out a long sigh.

"What do you mean?" Harry said. "I doubt you've fought anything worse than a dragon."

"Actually, I have fought a dragon. Two, but they were ghost dragons and they had extra dimensional powers, and I'm sure that they aren't the same. But I don't know what a sphinx is…I never got around to listening in class when we were studying mythical creature, or anything else for that matter, so I didn't really bother looking into it. But if the dragons here are anything like the dragons in the Ghost Zone, it's really not much of a big deal to me anymore."

"Oh, really?" Harry said skeptically. "Have you faced dementors?"

"Probably not. What are they?"

"They suck the happiness out of you." Harry said.

"Are they big, black, hooded things that make you all sad?" Danny said, a smile spreading on his face as he remembered the night before.

"Yes."

"Then yes, I've seen one. Yesterday before we met you, we had just seen one of those dementy-whatsits ("Dementors" Harry said through gritted teeth, remembering his odd conversation with the Dursleys a few days before he left) after we left Sam's house. I'm not sure if it went away, but it left after I kicked it in the chest."

"Well," Harry said, getting competitive. "I've faced an evil two-faced man who had Voldemort sticking out of the back of his head."

"I faced an evil ghost king and locked him in a sarcophagus of forever sleep. Not that it was easy; it almost killed me, actually…" Danny said, his voice trailing off.

"I've faced a giant snake controlled by a memory of Voldemort, who almost killed me before I killed it, and 3 gruesome tasks in the TriWizard Tournament, _and_ Voldemort when he first was reborn." Harry said, trying not to sound too proud. He hated feeling this way.

"I've faced an evil 24-year old version of _myself_, and last week an evil ringmaster bent on getting revenge on me exposed my secret worldwide. You wouldn't remember, I kind of erased everyone's memory afterwards."

Harry opened his mouth to say more, but closed it once he realized he had run out of things to say.

Ron chuckled. "Harry I think he's got you beat. Must have some good stories, huh Danny?"

"Yeah…plenty good stories" Danny said, his thoughts drifting to forbidden places in his mind.

He thought about Pariah Dark and how closely he had made it out, only to find out that Vlad stole the ecto skeleton. He thought about Dan, and how he had almost killed his family…his mom, his dad, Jazz, Tucker, and Sam. His head started getting fuzzy, and he lost balance. Sam and Tucker stood up and ran to him. His eyes glowed red and he seemed like he was fighting himself. Tucker held him back, and Sam looked into his eyes. He looked back, fighting the thing inside him, and passed out. Sam and Tucker took him to Tucker's bunk and laid him down. It only took him a few seconds to regain consciousness. He sat up and held his head.

"What happened?" He asked.

"Well, you sort of lost control" Tucker said, "…again."

Danny fell back against the pillow in frustration. "Dammit! Why is this happening?"

Sam frowned. The first time wasn't this bad, and it was a lot more spread out. What was going on here?

**_Flashback : before _****Reality Trip**

_The trio just got to Danny's house after school, and they were now sitting in his room, sitting lazily with open books in their hands. Who'd have thought that they actually had time for homework with all the ghost fights going on? This wasn't homework, though. They were looking over their ghost files, and updating everything. They added Danielle to their list, and now were just reading about the other ghosts. They've read the summaries so many times, but it just never got them bored._

"_So who's in the Ghost Zone so far, Sam?" Danny asked Sam. _

_She turned to her book. _"_Almost every single ghost is put away, except for the box ghost and Skulker."_

"_Danny," Tucker said, "we haven't updated Dan's profile. Do you want me to do it…wait, I sound like a secretary. Sam, update the file."_

"_Ugh, fine. Tucker, you really are way too lazy."_

_Danny chuckled and continued to look down at his notebook. He wasn't really reading, he was thinking about Dan and the capture. He thought of how much logic Dan had used, and how powerful he was. His eyes gleamed red as he wondered what it would've been like with those powers, but immediately shook the thought out of his mind, disgusted with himself._

"_Danny, are you okay?" Sam asked. She had noticed his eyes turn red._

"_Yeah…I'm fine." He told her_. 'I think'_._

_He thought again about Dan, and how he urged for the power. His eyes gleamed red a second time, but he blinked and they were normal. Sam and Tucker raised eyebrows at him, not looking away as he kept feigning reading. Danny once again thought of the strength and power, and saw the inside of a thermos, trying to fight his way out. He longed for the power, and was doing anything to get it. His eyes gleamed a third time, but they hadn't faded. He looked up and went berserk. He was throwing papers everywhere, and saying something about wanting the power, and that he must have the power. He turned to Sam and Tucker, who were trying to calm him down, and a wave of pure unadulterated hatred ran through him._

"_You."_

_He walked towards them, anger in his eyes, and remembered how it was their survival that had stopped it all…the power…the inevitability…everything._

_He lunged forward at Sam and almost attacked, when Tucker pulled out a Spector Deflector and buckled it around Danny's waist. He was shocked and his urge to destroy them only became stronger, but only when Sam looked into his eyes with eyes filled with fear, did he stop. His eyes returned to their normal color, and he passed out on the floor._

**_Flashback End_**

He shook the flashback from his mind, not because it was bothering (though it was), but because he didn't want to do that again. He didn't see himself. He saw Dan. And the dreams seem so real now too, ever since he got to his place.

Ron raised an eyebrow. "Lost control again? So this happens regularly?"

"No," Danny replied quickly. "It's only when I think about…certain things," his eyes flashed red again.

Sam and Tucker each gave him a concerned face, but decided to drop the subject when they saw that he was okay. Danny turned to Harry. "So what was with the yelling?"

Harry scowled. "I was stuck at my place completely barred from—"

"We got rewarded to be prefects," Hermione interrupted before it could turn into another shouting match. "Prefects are higher than the regular students. We have to patrol the halls, and we get to take points off of houses." She said happily while Ron grumbled in the background.

"That doesn't sound like a reward" Danny said. "That sounds like more pressure no one needs."

"What are houses?" Tucker asked.

"There are 4 houses at Hogwarts," Ron said. "There's Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. They're named after the founders of Hogwarts. Gryffindor is for the brave, Ravenclaw for the smart, Slytherin for the pureblood or just for people with cunning minds I guess, and Hufflepuff for the kind, or the rest, really." Hermione rolled her eyes. "All of us are in Gryffindor."

Danny nodded before continuing, "So what's Diagon Alley?"

"It's like the mall" Hermione said, "only outdoors. It's full of joke shops and Owleries. It's actually quite entertaining to be there when you're with the right people. We don't need—"

Ginny walked in. "Mum says we're leaving now, and unless you don't get down there, you're all being sent home. Since we all know that's not true and we don't want to make her mad, I suggest we get down there, now."

The kids went downstairs and saw Fred and George standing there impatiently. They mumbled something about being late and that some kid named Lee was going to get impatient.

"Now," Mrs. Weasley said. "You kids have heard of the Floo Network. You've just never used it. Correct?" They nodded. "Okay. What you need to do, is take some Floo powder, throw it into the fireplace and step in. Say your destination, which is Diagon Alley. Speak as clearly as possible, and if you need to yell, that works too."

Danny stepped (or actually pushed by a very pale Sam) into the fireplace and took some Floo powder. He took a deep breath, and threw the powder into the fire. With one last look at Sam, the flames turned emerald.

"DIAGON ALLEY!"

**AN-I only say New York because 1)I am _ridiculously happy _that I live here in the sexiest state in America, and 2)Amity_ville_ is in New York, so I figured Amity _Park _was somewhere close.**

_cliffhanger_, i know, i know, but it's not like you have to wait or anything. :scolds her stupidity:


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer** – I actually NEED one in this chapter! I don't own anything except for this plot and Elijah and Erica Foley. Woo!

* * *

"Woah"

Danny stepped out of the fireplace and into a huge crowd of people. He stared around, and didn't even notice the seven other people he was with step out of the fireplace. There were galleries and book shops, a huge wand shop and a joke shop. There were faces everywhere, old and new…wait a minute…old faces?

"Tucker," Danny said, pointing to the wand shop, "who does that look like?"

"It looks like…oh c'mon Danny you don't actually think that's—"

They were turned towards a wand shop, where a tall, broad blonde boy with blue eyes was talking to an old man, holding up a broken wand and looking disappointed. The boy nodded his head at the man, and began walking out of the shop, when he caught sight of a somewhat-scrawny teen pointing at him. He smiled a malicious smile and walked towards him.

"Well, well, well, if it isn't Danny Fenturd!" the boy said

"—Dash Baxter. You know, knowing our luck we should've expected something like this" Tucker said smoothly.

Danny gave a slight groan. He scowled and turned around. "What are you doing here Dash?"

"Same as every other kid: shopping for Hogwarts. Now, you on the other hand can't possibly be here for that, so what are you doing here? Hogwarts can't have possibly accepted you three so late anyways." Danny was about to speak, but Dash didn't let him. "Yeah I didn't think so. You're really not that talented. So who do you know that goes to Hogwarts?"

"Dash" Danny managed to say clearly through gritted teeth as he fidgeted under the heavy hand Dash had clapped onto his shoulder, "I am going to Hogwarts. It's you that we're wondering about."

"But, you've never been to Hogwarts. You've been in the same school as me since the 3rd grade."

"Yeah, that's why we're wondering why you're here, you nitwit," Danny said, muttering the last part to himself.

Dash chuckled. "Yeah about that, I've been going to Hogwarts all my life. Time Turners really do come in handy. My parents didn't want me to go off to some random school, so we'd rewind the whole year. It took a lot though, so many turns of the hourglass. It took us AGES to find a better way, but at the moment we had to figure out how many turns—"

"What a Time Turner?" Tucker asked curiously.

"They send you back in time. ANYWAYS, once I got to my fourth year—"

Danny stopped listening. His hands were rubbing his temples, and he was wondering where his luck went.

_ 'That's just it though,'_ he thought, _'I have no luck. And the longer I get lucky, the worse the outcome will be. Dash Baxter definitely files under unlucky.'_

He was knocked back into sense when Sam nudged him in the stomach. "Danny, he's asking you something."

"Oh, uh, right. What was the question?" Danny said, moving his thoughts back onto the conversation.

"Why'd you get accepted so late Fenturd?" Dash asked.

"Uh…I um…well you see…I'd rather not answer that." Danny said. He looked down to his hands and started fiddling with his fingers.

"Sure." Dash said mischievously. "Well, I won't be going back to Casper high this year (_'swell'_ Danny thought), so we'll probably be seeing each other more than usual. I'm in Gryffindor. Good luck during the sorting." Dash left, punching Danny and Tucker in the arm and waving to Sam.

Sam blinked in surprise at his back when he walked away. "Was he…being nice?"

Danny laughed nervously. "Yeah, he was. I'm not sure what's more scary: the fact that Dash has access to magic, or that I'm sharing a dorm with him."

They looked at each other and then realized that they were alone. They looked around and saw Harry, Ron and Hermione walking towards a really big building with the word "GRINGOTTS" on the doors. They walked in and saw hundreds of little dwarf-things and their jaws dropped.

"They're not dwarfs," Hermione explained when Tucker voiced his thoughts aloud. "They're goblins. They handle the currency here. Hermione led them to the smallest podium at the end of the room, with a sign on it saying "CURRENCY EXCHANGE".

"Sam, your parents left you a vault. Here's the key," Hermione pulled out a little gold key, and handed it over to Sam. She left to follow Ron and Harry.

Hermione turned to the little podium. She talked to the goblin and the goblin nodded. Danny and Tucker gave them their money that they got from their parents (about 200 each) and they got tons of coins in return: bunches of gold ones, a good amount of silver ones, and about a handful of bronze ones. They groaned and complained about the coin money system.

"Alright," Hermione said, "you're going to need a vault for all of this. Do you want two separate vaults or are you going to share?"

"Share," They said at the same time.

"I'm not going to remember my vault thingy if I have one on my own." Tucker said.

Danny scoffed. "Yeah, me neither."

After Danny and Tucker got their vaults and met back up with Harry, Ron, and Sam (who was completely amazed at the large amount of gold coins her parents had left her) they left to a place called Flourish and Blotts, coins jingling happily in their pockets.

They were amazed, again. There were books flipping themselves, portraits waving. They followed to where Hermione, Ron and Harry were standing, and picked up the book they were holding.

"_Standard book of spells: Grade 5?_" Danny asked.

"It helps us to learn the spells for every class," Hermione said. "Just take it, it's on your supply list. And we're going to have to get you everything else we have already. Come on," She led them out of the shop.

They bought everything they needed; quills ("But why can't we just use pens?!" Tucker complained), parchment, ink, cauldrons, gloves, the works…or the works for magic school anyways. Once they finished shopping for their school supplies, it was time for wands. Sam was excited, and Danny and Tucker were still sulking over the fact that they had to use quills.

"Oh c'mon guys," Sam said, "stop thinking about the stupid quills and start thinking about your own magic wand! Don't you think it would be cool to have a wand, to do magic?"

Danny chuckled. "Sam, I already have ghost powers, I don't know if I can handle magic. What if it explodes on me or something? The only reason I did this was for you…but I have to admit, I thought it would be pretty cool to make things disappear and stuff, but without touching it, anyways."

They walked into a place called Ollivander's, the wand shop they had seen Dash in. There was a small desk thing at the entrance, and millions of boxes everywhere. A man on a ladder appeared and smiled.

"How may I help you? Are you having trouble with your wands?"

"Uh, actually," Danny said, "We need wands. We're just starting at Hogwarts"

"Well that can't be right; you look way over 11 and…oh…You three are the new kids: Mr. Fenton, Ms. Manson, and…ah, the young Mr. Foley." His eyes seemed to linger over Tucker as he smiled, probably thinking of memories past.

He walked towards Sam. "Which is your wand arm?"

"My right, sir," She replied.

"How is he going to find the right wand?" Danny whispered to Hermione as the wandmaker left to rummage through the tons of boxes in the room.

"He looks you over, picks a few out, and you wave them around for a bit," she said patiently. "Either something good or bad happens. Nothing huge, you'll probably just break a vase or something. _'The wand chooses the wizard'_" she quoted.

They heard silent muttering coming from the back about phoenix feathers and unicorn hairs and finally came back, holding a box oh so delicately, like if it was made of glass. He opened it and handed her the wand.

"Ebony and phoenix feather; 8 inches, take it and give it a wave."

Sam looked at him with a weird face, but gave in and waved the wand at a bookshelf. The books went up in flames, and she widened her eyes. She was about to shout an apology, but the old wand maker scurried off to find a more suitable wand for her as Hermione put out the fire.

"Try this: Maple and unicorn hair, 11 1⁄2 inches."

She waved the wand, this time towards a couch, hoping to maybe cause less of a catastrophe. The couch exploded comically causing Danny and Tucker to laugh at the giant black smear on the floor and stopped abruptly when Sam shot them a death glare. She put the wand down carefully, and was about to say it was hopeless, until the old man pulled out another wand.

"This one is mahogany and dragon heartstring, swishy, 11 ½ inches."

She took the wand, and felt the comfortable fit in her hands. She raised her eyebrows and gave an accepting nod, and waved it towards a vase. Sparks came out of the wand and the vase began to float for a few seconds. She smiled and put the wand back in its original box.

"Well, that's a match. Ms. Manson, your new wand." He handed her the box and she carried it with the utmost care. She walked to the newly refurbished couch that Hermione had conjured up, and sat down.

"Next up: Mr. Fenton, if you please would just step here, thank you." He examined Danny with bulging eyes, looking up and down, left and right. He turned him around a few times, and then scuttled off to the shelves. He brought back a red box and opened it, revealing a sleek, black wand. "8 inches, Blackthorn and phoenix feather, extremely powerful. I'm positive this will work for you."

Danny waved it at a piece of paper, and sparks flew onto it, revealing a detailed version of his Phantom insignia. He grinned and took the box and wand and sat next to Sam, who was already examining her own.

"Next up is you, Mr. Foley," Ollivander said excitedly.

He pulled Tucker and examined him very closely. He looked sharply into his eyes, then grabbed his palm and studied it. He ran off to the very back of the room, and pulled out a dusty old box, muttering about waiting for the right person for this wand. He pulled it out, and before Ollivander could say anything, Tucker's eyes flashed and he spoke.

"Holly, 12 inches." Tucker said surely, before his eyes widened in a surprised expression.

Danny and Sam shot up to look at Tucker.

"How did he know that?" Danny asked Sam, who looked just as surprised as he did.

"I have no idea." They both stared at Tucker peculiarly.

Ollivander raised an eyebrow, and then smiled. "Yes sir, with a unicorn hair core. Give it a wave"

Tucker nervously looked around and felt like an idiot waving it towards a book. The book opened and turned a few pages, stopping abruptly. Tucker smiled and returned the wand to its box. Ollivander smiled and looked at him. "You are definitely Elijah and Erica's grandson."

"Yeah," he said, the shocked expression never leaving his face. "They're my mom's parents. How—"

Danny and Sam asked before Tucker could. "How did you know that?"

Ollivander smiled. "You have his eyes and your grandmother's face, and they were the best two Aurors I had ever met, and not to mention your grandfather's amazing talent in the Wandlore branch of magic. They defeated Norman Bruno back in their day."

Now Harry, Ron and Hermione looked confused. "Who's Norman Bruno?"

"He was one of the best Death Eaters He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named had, unfortunately." Ollivander said, walking over to the book Tucker opened and picking it up. "He used to work in the ministry in a lower, unimportant branch, and just got up and walked away one day, and joined the Death Eaters. The only reason he's so unknown is because he committed hundreds of murders and Imperiused thousands of people, and got away with it. Once your grandparents caught him, they had to let about thirty-seven people out of Azkaban."

Ollivander held out the book. It was flipped to a picture with two people on one side (Tucker's grandparents) who were fighting against the man in the other picture, which they guessed to be Norman Bruno.

Tucker's expression changed from shocked to confused. "So how did I know all that junk about the Wandlore?"

"I'm not sure, sonny," Ollivander said, gazing into space. "Perhaps you just carried on some of your grandfather's talent, or it was just a whim. Either way, you'd probably do wonders in that particularly difficult branch of magic."

Tucker turned around to catch Danny and Sam's eyes, both pairs alight with interest.

"Now, three wands at seven galleons each comes out to twenty-one galleons," Ollivander said.

Danny and Tucker had confused looks on their faces, and began rummaging through the coins that they had recently acquired from the bank. They were muttering about which coin was which, when Sam had come up to them and took 7 galleons from each of their piles, including her own. They took their wands and left the shop, excited expressions on each of their faces.

--line--

The kids had spent all their time in the rooms practicing 4 years of magic in a month. Even spare minutes went to learning wand movements or incantations. They learned everything they needed to know, from Potions to Charms, Transfiguration to Herbology…everything little detail was now fried into their brains. Almost everything was learned, except for Divination. They all decided that Divination was a waste of time and that it wouldn't matter if they knew the material when they got to Hogwarts.

The last month had simply flown by, and Danny, Sam and Tucker still couldn't believe that they were actually leaving to Hogwarts the next day.

"Well, this is really unbelievable," Danny said after a lesson. "And it's going to get even more unbelievable when we get to platform 9 1⁄2."

"9 3⁄4," Harry said with a chuckle.

"Whatever, it's still pretty cool."

They sighed and thought quietly to themselves while they packed. And unfortunately for Danny, his thoughts drifted back to the dream that he kept having, and his eyes flashed red; there goes 8 hours of peaceful sleep.

Of course, Sam and Tucker caught this, and they immediately pulled him out of the room into an empty room next door. Harry, Ron and Hermione, who thought they should follow at first, decided against it and just shrugged.

They closed the door to the empty room behind them, and saw cauldrons filled with bubbling potions and experiments everywhere. They ignored it and Sam and Tucker turned towards Danny.

"Danny, are you okay? Were thinking about the dream?" Sam asked. She was concerned, but of course, any girl would be if her best friend slash "significant other" was slowly unraveling from within.

_'It's not the time to think about that now, Sam!'_ she scolded herself, but Danny's next statement kept her from arguing with herself any longer.

"Of course I was. It keeps getting more real. I keep trying to find why this is happening, but then I think of him and I don't want to do anything stupid so I shake it out."

Fred and George came in holding boxes from Zonko's Joke Shop and a couple of passed out Doxies that they were fighting against two day ago. They simultaneously raised their eyebrows.

"OI! GET OUT OF OUR RO—"

"Danny you know you can't keep thinking about this!" Sam scolded. "Do you honestly think the dreams are real? If they were, Dan would've come ages ago. I don't want you to worry about something that doesn't need worrying about."

The other teens walked in. "What's going on—"

Tucker cut them off. "Danny you can't keep lingering on these dreams, just put them out of your mind and think of something else like I don't know, fluffy pink bunnies, or the fact that we're in London getting ready to go to magic school. That should be enough to get any thought out of your head."

Mad-Eye, Tonks, Sirius, and Lupin walked in. "What are they arguing about—"

"I'M TRYING! YOU DON'T SERIOUSLY THINK THAT I WANT TO THINK ABOUT THOSE DREAMS DO YOU? THEY'RE TEARING MY HEAD APART! THE CHANCES THAT ALL OF THIS IS ACTUALLY HAPPENING ARE HIGH! IT SEEMS MORE REAL BY THE SECOND!" Danny leaned his back against the wall and slid down to the floor. Sam paced the room.

"Danny if this was real, he would be here right now. Didn't I say this already? When you decide to do something, you stick to it no matter what, which makes him the same way. If it were up to him he'd be here, and we wouldn't be."

"That's just it Sam, it's not up to Dan. Some other snake guy is holding him back. (The other wizards looked at each other frightened) I don't know what Dan is up to, but I'm going to find out, even if—"

"ALASTOR YOU'RE HERE! Listen I need you to check—"

Mrs. Weasley walked in. Every wizard tried to shush her, but they were too late. Danny, Sam and Tucker turned to the door which was being crowded up by every witch and wizard in the house. Molly widened her eyes. "Uh…beg pardon. Alastor there's a cupboard in the next few rooms over and there's something in it, is it a boggart?"

Mad-Eye's eye turned to an impossible angle. He started clunking out of the room. "Yes it a boggart. I'll get it—"

"No, no! I'll get it!" Molly said, scurrying out of the room as fast as she could.

They all turned back to Danny, Sam and Tucker. Danny rubbed his temples and got up from the floor. He walked over to the window and opened it.

"I'll be right back. I need to clear my head." He jumped out the window and transformed into Phantom, flying away at 112 miles per hour, leaving a concerned Sam and Tucker looking out the window until he disappeared. The two of them turned back to the crowd.

"Uh…heh…you're probably wondering what's going on?"

* * *

'_Should I really go to Hogwarts? I mean it's probably just going to make things worse with the stupid dream…woah…shake it off.'_

After he had left, he flew for about 7 hours to Amity Park. He'd thought about a lot when he left. He was going to the only place that could calm him down, but when he got there, someone was on his stump.

"Valerie?"

Valerie was at The Spot, sitting on the tree stump where she had first found out about Danny's other half. She turned around, and opened her mouth in shock. She couldn't believe it…Danny was back!

"What are you doing here?" she asked in shock as she turned around and ran to hug him.

"I needed somewhere to clear my head, and I don't know my way around London, so I came back. It took forever though…" Danny trailed off before continuing, "What are _you _doing on _my_ stump?" he asked playfully.

Her eyes narrowed, playing along. "I was trying to figure out how to send you something but then that owl flew away and I didn't know what to do."

"Yeah, that's what happened when I tried to send you the letter…"

An awkward silence fell upon them.

Valerie gave out a depressed sigh. "Why didn't you trust me enough to tell me before?"

"Because Valerie," Danny started, "You never gave me a chance to tell you. Have you ever looked back at the times we've fought, literally? There wasn't a chance in the world that you would've let me tell you. That night, that was the only time I ever expected for you to understand, and unfortunately…"

"Danny, I'm so sorry!" she said quickly, burrowing her face in her hands. "I didn't mean to run off like that it's just…I didn't know what else to do at the moment…I was in shock. You try finding out that the person you used to literally fight with was one of your best friends!"

"Well, that's what happened when I found out about you, only we weren't as close back then." Danny said.

"I've been talking to your parents. They felt the same way I did. Your dad felt the worst though, always talking about how he wanted to…you know…"

"Yeah, but I knew how he'd react, but I just chose to keep it to myself, I wasn't ready for the whole world to know."

"How did—"

"Long story short: Evil Ringmaster changed reality and everyone found out about my 'condition'. I then used the power of reality to change everything back to normal, so no one knows what happened."

Valerie's jaw dropped. "And when did this happen?!"

"A week before I left to London."

"Wow."

They sat in an awkward silence, and twiddled with their fingers. Valerie spoke up first. She talked about the fights they had. They asked questions they were never able to ask before, most of them coming from her. Awkward questions arose as well when Danny started telling Valerie about him and Sam. A flash of…something passed on her face, but was gone before Danny could properly look.

Pretty soon they were both laughing about how ridiculous their fights were, ghostly or non-ghostly, and the sun had come up. Danny yawned and looked at the stars, which were now obviously gone.

Danny flew up out of his seat. "Oh no, I was here all night! I gotta go!" he said quickly.

Valerie raised her eyebrow. "Why? What's wrong? It's like a quarter to five in the morning."

"I'M GONNA MISS THE TRAIN!"

"What train?" Valerie managed out after a slight chuckle.

"THE TRAIN TO HOGWARTS!" He swerved towards Valerie's direction. "Valerie look, the new school I'm going to is a magic school called Hogwarts. You don't believe me now, I know you don't, but you can't tell anybody, regardless! I won't get into any trouble for telling you this here, all of the wizards back in London don't like it here apparently, but if anybody but my family finds out, I'm dead!"

Valerie's face turned to that of a skeptic. "Yeah right Danny, get over yourself. There's no such thing as—"

Danny pointed his wand to a tree and concentrated. He shouted the Patronus Charm, which took him two straight weeks of four to five-hour of sleep to learn with lots of help from Harry and Professor Lupin.

The second he finished the spell, a huge silver raven flew out of it.

Danny looked at him with his eyebrows furrowed. "Tell the others I'm on my way"

The raven spiraled and zoomed away, leaving traces of silver behind him. Danny jumped up to fly away behind it, but quickly turned around to see Valerie one last time before he left. She was standing there wide-eyed and jaw open staring at the silver trail left behind. At least she wasn't running away.

"Don't worry Val," Danny said. "I'll be back sooner than you think. Take care of the ghosts for me while I'm gone! I'll miss you!"

He flew off into the horizon, and smiled._ 'Finally! No more secrets, no more lies. Valerie and I can just be normal friends…who hunt ghosts. Nothing's ever normal for me is it?'_

* * *

**A/N **- woo!


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N **– editing - so I'm at 7 now. This is the longest chapter in the story so far. God I'm dreading this.

* * *

**_Scene ;; Before Danny left_**

_They all turned back to Danny, Sam and Tucker. Danny rubbed his temples and got up from the floor. He walked over to the window and opened it._

_"I'll be right back. I need to clear my head." He jumped out the window and transformed into Phantom, flying away at 112 miles per hour, leaving a concerned Sam and Tucker looking out the window until he disappeared. The two of them turned back to the crowd._

_"Uh…heh…you're probably wondering what's going on?"_

**_Scene End._**

Sam and Tucker looked at the nosy witches and wizards. They all looked blank in the face, especially Fred and George, whispering to each other about how everyone was going to start lecturing everyone else about something, and then they'll never get to finishing their grand experiment. No one paid any mind to them, though. They were too caught up in this latest dilemma.

"Well," Ron said, it might help us to understand why Danny jumped out the window."

"Danny's going through a…" Sam struggled to find the words, "rough time right now. He's just a little sidetracked, nothing he can't handle, just a silly nightmare."

"Dreams can mean a lot more in the magical world than they do in the Muggle world," Remus said gently. "What is the dream about? Who is this snake man?"

"I don't know," Tucker said, shaking his head and taking Danny's place on the floor, "but Danny seems to describe him in more detail than he should be able to, considering it's a dream…it wasn't something you would want to talk about. Danny said he had these red eyes, and slits for a nose. He wore a long, black cloak, and he had very pale skin. And in the dream, he's working with Dark Dan, who exists out of time. He was never supposed to exist. The snake guy kept telling Dan that he had to wait for something before he went out rampaging through London or something; I forget what Danny tells me. I never try to remember his dream."

"It's Voldemort!" Harry said suddenly.

"Harry, be reasonable," Hermione said impatiently. "How could it possibly be Voldemort?"

"Come on, what other 'snake man' do we know? And our dreams seem to be the same."

"But it _isn't_ your dream," Hermione said, "it's Danny's. How is he linked into this?"

"Um…" Sam started uncertainly, "you know that other ghost? That's Danny, only not really."

Remus quirked an eyebrow in confusion. "Explain."

Sam took in a large breath. "A couple of months ago, we had to take these exams called the C.A.T.s, or Career Aptitude Tests. And originally, Danny was supposed to have cheated on said test. When he cheated, it set off a trigger of events. Our teacher somehow found out about it, and asked Danny and his parents to meet him at the Nasty Burger, which is the fast food restaurant that, at the time, was completely blown to the ground after an accident with overheated Nasty sauce. One packet can cause an explosion of a city block, and when their whole supply was jammed next to the stove that was on unknowingly…it sort of exploded on all of us." Sam's eyes welled up and she couldn't go on, so Tucker jumped in unwillingly, his face already pale.

"Danny was the only one who survived. In his father's will, Danny was supposed to go live with his dad's 'best friend' Vlad, who is a half-ghost like Danny, only he's evil. Vlad was always trying to kill Danny's dad, marry his mom, and adopt him and his sister while making Danny an apprentice.

"We never found out if the story that Danny heard was right or not, but it seems extremely unlikely. According to Vlad, Danny didn't want to deal with his human emotions anymore, because they were too painful for him to bear with, so he asked to get his ghost half ripped out of him." Tucker started shaking alongside Sam. "And Vlad, being the kind and gentle soul that he is, obliged with Danny's request. And once Phantom was free, he ripped the ghost out of Vlad, and merged with it. The consequence of that action was…is…too much to bear right now."

Tucker stopped. Both he and Sam were trembling from the memory now.

Everyone in the room visibly paled throughout the telling of the story. Vivid mental pictures were running through the heads of every person in the room, making tears come out of Hermione's eyes and shudders roll down the spines of most of the occupants in the room.

"Oh," Remus said, at a loss for words. _'I shouldn't have asked. They didn't have to relive that for us.'_

They stood there in silence for a few minutes while Sam and Tucker's shaking started to recede when Mrs. Weasley walked in to call the adults downstairs for another quick meeting with the Order.

As they walked downstairs, Fred and George turned back to the group, in a lighter mood.

"Well, it's great that we've figured this out,"

"And we'll be here if you need help."

"But can you all please,"

"GET OUT?!"

* * *

**_Scene ;; Danny and Valerie _**

_"Valerie look, the new school I'm going to is a magic school called Hogwarts. You don't believe me now, I know you don't, but you can't tell anybody, regardless! I won't get into any trouble for telling you this here, all of the wizards back in London don't like it here apparently, but if anybody but my family finds out, I'm dead!"_

_Valerie's face turned to that of a skeptic. "Yeah right Danny, get over yourself. There's no such thing as—"_

_Danny pointed his wand to a tree and concentrated. He shouted the Patronus Charm, which took him two straight weeks of four to five-hour of sleep to learn with lots of help from Harry and Professor Lupin._

_The second he finished the spell, a huge silver raven flew out of it._

_Danny looked at him with his eyebrows furrowed. "Tell the others I'm on my way"_

_The raven spiraled and zoomed away, leaving traces of silver behind him. Danny jumped up to fly away behind it, but quickly turned around to see Valerie one last time before he left. She was standing there wide-eyed and jaw open staring at the silver trail left behind. At least she wasn't running away._

_"Don't worry Val," Danny said. "I'll be back sooner than you think. Take care of the ghosts for me while I'm gone! I'll miss you!"_

_He flew off into the horizon, and smiled._ 'Finally! No more secrets, no more lies. Valerie and I can just be normal friends…who hunt ghosts. Nothing's ever normal for me is it?'

**_Scene End. _**

Danny was flying back to Grimmauld Place at full speed, faster than he flew when he was going to Amity Park, watching the sun slowly rise upwards over his head. He got there at about 8:15 London time, in half the time it took for him to get to Amity. He landed through the window of his, Tucker, Harry and Ron's room, and collapsed on his bed. He transformed and rested his eyes for a few minutes, only to be shocked by the door slamming open by an infuriated Sam.

_"Where were you?"_ She asked before he could get a word out.

"I went back to Amity Park," he said quickly, jumping out of his bed to stand closer to her. "Calm down, Sam, I didn't do anything stupid. Besides, we have a while to get to the platform," he said, pulling her to him so he could hug her.

Sam smiled against his chest and wrapped her arms around him. "You still could've given me some kid of warning as to where you were going, or at least called when you got there. I was worried about you."

"Sorry, I was…held up."

Sam leaned away as he said this and raised an eyebrow. "So what did you do over there?"

"I went back to The Spot. Valerie was there, that's mostly why it took me so long to get back. We talked, and she vented out what she felt, and then we got so caught up in the moment of peace that we lost track of time. It was like one second we were surrounded by stars, the next I'm freaking out because the sky was getting lighter."

Sam stayed silent for a second before she continued her questions. "What did you tell her?"

"Well…" Danny hesitated. "I kind of…told her about where we were going. Hermione said that it didn't matter if we did any magic in New York, because all of the wizards there are street performers and stuff, and as long as no one voiced anything about magic in general that everything would be fine." Sam scowled at his response. "Don't look at me like that, I had to tell her. I couldn't just leave her hanging. What would you have done?"

"Yeah, whatever, I guess I understand," she said repentantly. "Let's just get downstairs. Mrs. Weasley made breakfast a few minutes ago."

The two walked out of the room, and into the hallways, where they heard loud sobs coming from the door with the boggart. They both looked at each other and shrugged before deciding to walk in.

They immediately regretted their decision. Mrs. Weasley was on her knees at the head of Ron's dead body. They walked forward in alarm, but Mrs. Weasley just shouted "Ridikulus!" which should've gotten rid of the boggart, but only revealed a dead Harry instead. Poof. Dead Twins. Poof. Dead Ginny.

Mrs. Weasley yelled out a bigger sob. The boggart's form then turned to Danny and Sam, molding and transforming into something else: Dark Dan was standing in front of them, his piercing red eyes more detailed that one would've liked.

Danny and Sam both lost all the color in their faces and walked backwards as quickly as they could until they hit a wall. Danny's eyes were flashing dangerously from red to blue and he put his hand to his head, trying to block out the quick changing images from the dead forms of his friends and family to this monstrous version of himself.

Danny put a green hand out in front of him and shot the boggart of Dan right through the heart with an ectobeam just as Sam pulled out an ectogun she had stashed in her boot and shot. No damage appeared.

Tucker, Harry and Ron were downstairs listening to the noises coming from up the stairs for a few minutes before finally deciding to go upstairs and see what was happening, bumping into Hermione and Ginny as they left their room to see what was going on as well. They entered the room and saw Mrs. Weasley, on her knees crying, Sam, backed up against a wall, forgotten ectogun on the floor, and Danny trying to fight a huge man with Danny's insignia on it. Tucker flew into the room to stand next to Sam and picked up her ectogun.

The boggart finally turned away from Danny to look at Harry, and turned into a huge dementor. Harry pulled out his wand and screamed "Ridikulus!" which caused the boggart to turn into a…giant coffee mug? What? It disappeared back into the cupboard, and the shaking had ceased.

Sam was panicking. She was taking in short, unsteady breaths as she slid down onto the floor to sit and to try to control her shaking and breathing, with Tucker and Danny following her down. Ron and Hermione went to help Mrs. Weasley up.

Harry walked up to the three teens on the floor. "That was him? That was Dan?"

They all nodded.

They walked out of the room, one after the other, and walked down stairs to see everyone leaving the house to get to the platform, even Sirius, who was trying to blend as a dog to say goodbye to everyone as they left onto the train. The last time they had looked at a clock, it was about 9:30. It was 10:05, and they had about a 20 minute drive to King's Cross, and about a 5 minute walk to the platform.

* * *

"Half an hour left, guys," Mr. Weasley said in general.

The entire group was talking loudly amongst themselves, all except for Danny, Tucker, Sam, and Mrs. Weasley. They remained in silence as the rest of the group walked a few paces in front of them.

"Well, we're here!" Mr. Weasley said, pointing to a blank wall. "Platform 9 3/4 . Fred, George you two go first."

"Wait," Tucker said, speaking for the first time since they were at the house as Fred and George stepped forward, "how are we supposed to get on to the platform?"

"You'll see," Fred said, and ran straight into the wall, followed by George. Tucker smiled, hoping for a crash, but when he saw them go _through_ the wall, his mouth opened in astonishment. Harry, Ron and Hermione went next, followed by Ginny. Next up: Danny.

"There's no way I'm going to run straight at a wall."

"Just go Danny!" Sam said, pushing him forward.

He looked back with a worried face, closed his eyes, and then jogged towards the wall, breaking into a run out of fright. He half-expected to crash into a wall, but instead of making any contact, he felt a small tingling travel down his body, like if he were becoming intangible.

When he opened his eyes, he saw a magnificent red train. There were kids everywhere, and conductors blowing whistles. There were so many people, all of them speaking with heavy English accents, like everyone back at the house. He walked forward, not wanting to get hit by Sam or Tucker, or any of the adults. After Sam and Tucker, Sirius (as a dog) bounded through the platform wall, and raced over to Harry, licking him all over the face and being eyed by a pale-faced boy with greasy, blonde hair and a mean look on his face. They saw Dash too, with his parents. They gave him an hourglass attached to a chain, and said their goodbyes.

Mrs. Weasley had come in next. She had only spoken when it was time to say goodbye to her children, and the other teens as well. Mr. Weasley had warned for none of them to get into any trouble, eyeing Harry while saying it, and they boarded the train. They looked out the window as the train left the station, while Sirius ran next to them playfully. Once the adults were out of view, they walked into the train, looking for an empty compartment.

Hermione sighed. "We're…well…Ron and I are supposed to go to the Prefects carriage." She said. Ron wasn't looking at anyone, as he had become extremely interested in the gum on the floor beside his foot. "I don't think we'll have to stay there the whole time. Our letters said that we just get instructions from the Head Boy and Girl, and then we just patrol the hallways for a bit."

"Alright, we'll see you later." Danny said. "We'll be…I don't know where…just look around till you see us."

"Well alright. Bye." She said shyly.

Ron and Hermione left, and Harry, Danny, Sam, and Tucker went off to find an empty compartment. When they found none, they decided to sit with Ginny, a kid holding a toad, and some girl in the corner reading an upside down magazine.

Harry sat down next to Ginny and the other kid, and Danny, Sam and Tucker sat next to the uncomfortably weird girl.

The kid with the toad smiled at the three. "Hey, I'm Neville Longbottom! And this is Trevor." He introduced, motioning to the toad.

Danny smiled and waved his hand. "I'm Danny Fenton, nice to meet you. This is Sam and Tucker. We're new here."

"Oh, cool, did you go to somewhere different before Hogwarts?"

"Uh…well…I'm not exactly sure—"

"FENTINA!" Dash shouted, walking in to their compartment. He was already wearing black robes with the Gryffindor insignia on the corner. "How do you three feel coming to Hogwarts for the first time? Are you excited?" And before he let any of them say anything, he spoke again. "I gotta go. I hope you get in Gryffindor!" he said, leaving the compartment and shouting after some guy named Dean.

"You know Dash?" Neville asked. They nodded. "He's pretty pushy sometimes, but he could be a cool when he wants to be. With brains like his, I don't know how he didn't get into Ravenclaw."

Three jaws dropped to the ground.

"Did you just say that _Dash_ was _smart_?" Tucker asked incredulously.

Neville nodded. "If Hermione didn't go here he'd probably have the top grade instead of her."

They looked at each other before shaking the thought out of their heads. Danny looked to the girl they were sitting next to, who was peeking over at him from the top of the magazine.

"Um, hi…" Danny said awkwardly. "I'm Danny Fenton."

"I'm Luna Lovegood." She replied. "I'm _very_ pleased to meet you Danny Fenton." She said, and then one again hid herself behind the magazine.

Danny looked around the compartment; everyone was having a silent giggle fit.

He turned to talk with the others about something different entirely. And the second Sam asked about sports, Harry, Ginny and Neville got into a longwinded conversation about Quidditch, explaining every little detail about the game ("BUT WHY CAN'T THEY PLAY SOCCER LIKE NORMAL ENGLISH PEOPLE?" Tucker whined).

"Oh I almost forgot! Look what I got for my birthday!" Neville said as he rummaged through his bag with the toad free hand and pulled out a strange grey plant, which looked something like a cactus, but instead of spines, it had boils.

"_Mimbulus mimbletona,_" he said proudly.

They all stared at the thing with weird faces. Neville smiled and held it up for everyone to get a good look. He smiled a big cheesy smile and then put it down on his lap.

"It's really, _really_ rare. I don't know if there is one in the greenhouse at Hogwarts even. I can't wait to show Professor Sprout."

"Does it…_do_ anything?" Danny asked, eyeing the plant weirdly.

"Yeah, it does loads of stuff! It's got an amazing defense mechanism…hold Trevor for me for a second."

Danny took hold of the toad and everyone curiously eyed the plant (even Luna peeked her head from behind the magazine). Neville took the plant and held it up to his eyes, and gave the plant a sharp jab with the tip of his quill. Gooey stuff came out of every boil and squirted everyone everywhere. Luna was lucky enough to have the magazine with her, and the rest of the teens had covered their faces. But Danny, his hands holding a fidgety Trevor, got a face full of purple goo.

Neville stammered out an apology. "I'm sorry! I mean, I didn't think it would give such a blast you know? I've never tried it and well…I'm just…sorry. Don't worry it's Stinksap, not poisonous."

Danny and Tucker simply smiled like five-year-olds. "That was cool! Plants back in—"

The compartment door slid open, revealing a stunningly beautiful Asian girl.

"Hello Harry. Hi everyone," she said kindly. They said hello politely back, except for Harry, whose cheeks began feeling hot.

Cho smiled at the purple goo everywhere. "Uh…bad timing I guess?"

Harry gulped. "Uh…I mean…hi Cho…yeah bad timing…" The room started to get noticeably hotter in Harry's perspective.

"Um well…okay then I'll see you around—" She finally noticed Danny, Sam and Tucker. "Oh, I'm sorry; I don't think we've met. I'm Cho Chang."

Danny and Tucker were staring at her open-mouthed trying to string words together. It was like Paulina, only smart.

Sam scoffed and pushed them aside. "Hi, I'm Sam Manson. The morons are Danny and Tucker." She gestured towards each of them. "We'd shake your hand, but we're covered in goo."

Cho frowned. "Were you at the sorting in your first year? I'm not really familiar with your names, sorry."

"No, it's okay, we're new here. And before you ask, I really can't tell you why we're here so late, frankly I'm not sure myself. Sorry." Sam gave an apologetic smile.

Cho smiled as she had her question answered before she asked. She looked back towards Harry, who was pink in the cheeks and wishing to be somewhere else and NOT covered in goo. She smiled, and then slid the compartment door closed, leaving Danny and Tucker still with their jaws wide open.

Sam laughed. She flicked them both in the face and they returned to their normal selves…covered in Stinksap.

"Danny," Ginny said, "Maybe you can get rid of this…you know…with your 'abilities'."

"Uh…well most of us know anyways, what could it hurt? I think…" He turned himself and the compartment intangible, and the goo slid off. Neville watched in awe and Luna just poked her head over the magazine.

"I know who you are," She said. "You're Danny Phantom, aren't you?"

Neville smiled. "You're Danny Phantom?! I've heard so much about you! Wait…the muggles said you were the bad guy who attacked Amity Park, didn't they?"

"Yeah, they did, but they had the story completely wrong," Danny quickly replied. "I've always been the good guy, since day one with these powers, it's just that I know a lot of people who want to ruin my reputation. The fact that I'm half-ghost or whatever makes me a valuable 'prize' as the ghosts like to put it. And I'm an unintentional fugitive from the ridiculous Ghost Police."

"Wait a minute, half-ghost? How can you be half-dead?"

"I'm not really half-_dead_, just half-_ghost_. I don't know another way to put it. The warden of the Jail in the Ghost Zone is a total jerk, and would probably arrest you for biting your nails if he didn't like it…he likes making his own rules."

"You know what? I think I'm going to stop asking questions." He said, looking as if he was still piecing things together in his head.

* * *

Ron and Hermione had not shown up until after the food trolley came along and after they explained _Chocolate Frogs_ and _Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans_ to Danny, Sam and Tucker. They slid the compartment door open when there was about a half hour left of the train ride. They had all changed into their robes, except for Sam, Danny and Tucker, who were extremely grateful that Dumbledore gave them orders not to change, and they were laughing and deciding what kinds of beans they were eating as the others went off to change ("EW THIS ONE'S VOMIT!" Danny said, and Sam and Tucker laughed).

Hermione and Ron had taken seats opposite from each other and slumped into their seats. Ron grabbed some food that was left over on the seat, and groaned.

"I'm starving," He said, throwing his head back and closing his eyes, while taking a bite out of the struggling chocolate frog in his hands. "That whole thing in the cabin was pointless."

"No it wasn't, Ron." Hermione said, rolling her eyes. "They told us everything we needed to for being a Prefect." Neville, Danny, Sam, and Tucker stopped listening as they knew some kind of speech was coming. "First, we have to patrol the corridors for a few minutes soon, and we get to assign detentions and we get to take points off of houses. Second, there are 2 Prefects from each house—"

"And guess who's representing Slytherin?" Ron interrupted.

"Malfoy, the git…" Harry said, after adding an annoyed grunt.

"And that _cow_ Pansy Parkinson," Hermione said bitterly. "Hufflepuff has Ernie Macmillan and Hannah Abbott, and Anthony Goldstein and Padma Patil got chosen for Ravenclaw."

"Ron took Padma to the Yule Ball" Luna said randomly behind her magazine. "She didn't like it very much, because you didn't ask her to dance. I wouldn't have minded though, I don't like dancing" She disappeared behind her magazine, which by the way was called _The Quibbler_.

Ron stared at her opened mouth for a few seconds, and looked to someone for an explanation. They were all trying to hold their laughter in, especially Ginny and Tucker, who were biting their lips to keep from bursting into giggles.

They broke into their own conversations about random things that popped into their heads, when all of a sudden, Luna starts laughing like a maniac and fell to the floor, clutching her sides and adjusting her earrings, which were radishes. She had been talking to Danny and Tucker and they stared at her, trying not to laugh at her sudden outburst caused by a lovebird joke Tucker made about Danny and Sam.

"HAHAHAH! THAT WAS SOOO FUNNYY! HAHA!"

Ron was staring at her opened mouthed again, and this time, his eyebrows were fixed into a weird position. She sat back onto her seat, wiping tears from her eyes and blinking a lot. Her magazine had slid to the floor, and Harry picked it up as he noticed one of the side topics. He went through the magazine and was quiet for a bit, reading one of the passages.

**_Sirius – Black as he's painted?_**

**_Notorious Mass Murderer OR Innocent Singing Sensation?_**

Once he had finished reading the magazine article, he handed it back to Luna, almost breaking into a loud laugh. Hermione saw he had a big smile on his face, and wondered what was so funny. He summarized the article, and she scoffed.

"Well, that's expected. _The Quibbler_'s just another moronic magazine, a whole lot of rubbish."

"My father's the editor of _The Quibbler._" Luna said stiffly before disappearing once again under the goo-covered magazine.

"Oh…well…never mind…" Hermione said, a blush crawling up her cheek as she sank in her seat.

* * *

About twenty minutes later, the train halted to a stop. The kids stood up and took their backpacks off of the thing where they put their suitcases. Danny and Tucker opened the compartment door and walked right into the blonde, greasy-haired kid that they saw at the train station. He gave them a death glare, and was about to walk away when he noticed Harry was behind them.

"Well, if it isn't Harry Pothead."

"Uh, dude, who are you?" Danny said, stepping in between Harry and the blonde kid.

"Aw. Wee Potter needs a few puny bodyguards to keep himself safe. Who are these two dunderheads anyway?"

Danny and Tucker laughed. "Dunderheads? Who in their right mind says that? Seriously, you couldn't come up with a better insult?"

"…Shut up. You…you—"

"Can't come up with a better comeback than 'dunderhead'? Don't worry about it, blondie. We'll just be heading off now."

The kid looked back at Danny with a face of disgust. "Mind your manners. Unlike any of you three, I've been made Prefect, which means I, unlike you, have the power to give out punishments."

"Wait," Tucker said "You're that Malfoy kid? This is the…what did you call him…'git' you mentioned earlier?"

Danny laughed. "Wow, by the way you described his attitude, I thought he'd be a little scarier, and had better taste in hairstyles. I mean, say it with me: shampoo."

Malfoy took out his wand and pointed it at Danny, who laughed when he dropped it. Malfoy pulled it up to him after retrieving it and was about to perform a spell when Dash came in between them, giving Malfoy a nasty look, while smiling at Danny, who was still completely weirded out at the fact that Dash was actually at Hogwarts…being _nice._

Danny and Tucker laughed and walked off the train after Dash…actually, it was more of a stride. The euphoria of being at Hogwarts seemed to be beginning. Sam walked out of the compartment door after them, briefly staring into Malfoy's eyes, as though she was caught in them. They looked at each other for about 3 seconds, then awkwardly blushed and turn away.

"Malfoy, just grab your little moronic friends and leave." Harry said, his face etched with an angry face.

"I seemed to have touched a nerve." Malfoy said, a smirk appearing across his face. "Well, just watch yourself, Potter, because I'll be _dogging_ your footsteps in case you step—"

"GET OUT OF HERE MALFOY!" Hermione yelled. Malfoy sniggered and walked off with his friends Crabbe and Goyle on his flanks.

* * *

They waited for Hermione and Ron with Harry after they got off of the train, and set off to the school. Tucker was complaining about the walking, all the way until he got to the carriages.

Harry raised an eyebrow at the carriage. There were strange horses pulling the carriages, which was peculiar because the carriages usually pulled themselves. He turned to Hermione and asked her what the horses were called.

"What are you talking about Harry?" Hermione said, "The carriages are pulling themselves, they always have…"

The only ones who couldn't see the horses were Neville, who hadn't said anything, and Ron and Hermione. Danny, Sam and Tucker saw the horses as well as Luna.

"Don't worry," Luna said, "I see them too…you're just as sane as I am."

This worried the teens more. If Luna Lovegood a.k.a. Loony Lovegood says that they're just as sane as she is, then they're like…INCHES AWAY from insanity, but Danny knew that without Luna's help.

They arrived at the door of Hogwarts finally, and were greeted by Professor McGonagall, who gave instructions for Harry, Ron, Hermione, Neville and Luna to go to their House tables in the Great Hall.

Professor McGonagall motioned for the last 3 teens and the rest of the first years to follow her towards the Great Hall. They walked in and saw one of the most amazing sights: The ceiling was correspondent to the sky, and there were lit candles _floating_ giving light to the room. There were 4 long tables, with a banner hanging over each, representing each house: a green and silver banner with a Snake emblem for Slytherin, a red and gold banner with a Lion emblem for Gryffindor, a blue and bronze banner with an Eagle emblem for Ravenclaw, and a yellow and black banner with a badger on it for Hufflepuff.

The first years (and the other 3) gaped at the scene. Most of the students were whispering quietly to themselves about Danny, Sam, and Tucker ("The boy with the black hair is cute!" They heard a girl from the Hufflepuff table say a little too loudly) wondering why they're mixed in with the 1st years.

The new students were all lined up at the front of the faculty desk, except for Danny, Sam and Tucker, who were standing next to the faculty table, waiting until the Sorting was over, like they had been told. There was a stool with a mangy old hat sitting on it. The new students were eyeing the hat curiously. The little kids started mumbling. Professor McGonagall stepped away from the hat, and a face appeared on it, which started to sing.

_In times of old when I was new,  
And Hogwarts barely started,  
The Founders of our noble school  
Thought never to be parted.  
United by a common goal,  
They had the selfsame yearning,  
To make the world's best magic school  
And pass along their learning.  
"Together we will build and teach"  
The four good friends decided,  
And never did they think that they  
Might someday be divided.  
For were there such friends anywhere  
As Slytherin and Gryffindor?  
Unless it was the second pair  
Of Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw?  
So how could it have gone so wrong,  
How could such friendships fail?  
Well, I was there and so can tell  
The whole, sad, sorry tale. —_

Danny, Sam, and Tucker had stopped listening…not because they weren't interested, but because Danny's eyes were flashing from red to blue quickly, and they hadn't gone back to normal completely for about a minute. He fought the urge for power for a long time, and once his eyes had turned back to their normal color for a solid thirty seconds, Danny was wiped out. The hat was almost through with his song, but some of the students…actually, MOST of the students were watching him struggle…He gave a smug smile and then rubbed his temples.

_—And we must unite inside her  
Or we'll crumble from within.  
I have told you, I have warned you,  
Let the Sorting now begin._

The kids that had heard the whole song were mumbling to the others, explaining about what the mangy old hat just said. Everyone was thinking the same thing: Did the hat usually give warnings?

Once all the smaller kids got Sorted, it was Danny, Sam, and Tucker's turn to get Sorted. Tucker was called first, and he moved to sit at the stool. They placed the hat on Tucker's head, and the hat frowned. He heard a little voice in his ears.

_'Tucker Foley…You're Elijah and Erica's grandson _(Tucker rolled his eyes)_…I was wondering if I was ever going to see you. There's a lot of intelligence in this mind, but there's a lot of bravery clouding that up. You've gotten yourself out of many difficult predicaments in your time…better be…'_

"GRYFFINDOR!" The hat shouted. There was a loud uproar from the Gryffindor table, and Tucker got up from the stool, and was making his way to the table when Professor McGonagall told him to wait back where he was before.

Sam was next. She sat at the stool, and the voice appeared in her head.

_'Samantha Manson. You're very bright, and very talented. There's courage, oh yes, and a will to make yourself better to impress a certain someone named—'_

_'HEY!' _Sam thought back at the hat, _'Aren't you supposed to be sorting me, NOT gazing into my personal thoughts?'_

_'Fiesty'_ The hat said to her, _'Better be…'_

"GRYFFINDOR!" The hat said once again. Another uproar was heard from the Gryffindor House, and Sam went to wait with Tucker, saying good luck to Danny while he was on his way towards the hat. They placed the hat on his head, and the voice appeared somewhat suddenly, which made him jump.

_'This is difficult…there are two trains of thought here…Daniel Fenton, you are clumsy and not too confident, but there is bravery, a lot of bravery. Love for your family, your friends, and especially that Samantha Man—'_

_'Uh, hello? This is when you sort me, not when you cheat your way into my private thoughts.' _Danny thought impatiently.

_'Daniel Fenton is a clumsy overprotective child. You care for the well-being of your friends and family. Danny Phantom, on the other hand _(Danny's eyes widened) _is full of cunning and witty banter, and would do whatever it took to get what he wanted, be it saving your family or getting a project done. You are split between two houses…but where to put you…'_

"Better be…"

* * *

**A/N **– cliffhanger! Hahaha I love these. Too bad you don't have to wait for it. this chapter is a lot different from the original. i love how it turned out


	8. Chapter 8

**_Scene: The Sorting_**

'Daniel Fenton is a clumsy overprotective child. You care for the well-being of your friends and family. Danny Phantom, on the other hand_(Danny's eyes widened) _is full of cunning and witty banter, and would do whatever it took to get what he wanted, be it saving your family or getting a project done. You are split between two houses…but where to put you…'

_"Better be…"_

**_Scene End_**

Danny was worrying. He thought he was a definite Gryffindor, but now the hat was telling him that he could be a Slytherin, in the house that every wizard had gone evil. He wasn't bad…was he? So he was having a few surges of evil, but it's not like that meant he wasn't the good guy! He was always the good guy! 'Yeah…there's nothing to worry about…heh…' Danny gave a loud gulp as the hat was about to yell what house he had made it into. He wasn't sure, but he thought the Hat was hesitating to make Danny worry…and unfortunately for him, it was working.

"GRYFFINDOR!"

Danny gave out a sigh of relief and then a large intake of air after realizing that he hadn't been breathing. He removed the hat from his head and walked over to where Sam and Tucker were standing. His face was paled after the hat had told him what he might have been in Slytherin. Professor McGonagall explained to them where the common room was, and to ask the prefects for the password. She motioned for them to sit at their tables, and they half-ran their way across the table to sit near Harry, Ron, and Hermione.

After all the sorting had been finished, Dumbledore got up from his large chair. He stared out at all the faces staring back at him, and began to speak.

"To our new students, welcome, and to our old students, welcome back! I trust that everything has been okay in your leave, which is something I would be very delighted to hear. There are very few announcements this year. And those you'll hear about once you are done eating and drinking."

Dumbledore finished the first of his announcements, and started the meal. The tables with empty platters were now filled with drumsticks, mashed potatoes, corn bread, and anything else people could eat. They ate happily, and they laughed and talked for the most part, but Danny kept thinking about the Sorting, and how close he was to being a Slytherin.

"WHAT?" Sam exclaimed looking at Danny.

Danny and Tucker jumped. They both looked at Sam, eyebrows raised. Danny was the first of the three to speak.

"Sam, what was that about?"

"You said…about the Hat…and Slytherin…didn't you?"

Danny's eyes widened, while Tucker just laughed. "He didn't say anything Sam. I think you're losing it…"

Once most of the kids were finished with their dinners, the food disappeared, leaving behind desserts of every kind. Most of the first years eyed the food eagerly, and clutched their full stomachs, but then immediately made room for the delicious sweets.

About an hour later, dinnertime had finished. Dumbledore stood up once again, and silenced the loud conversations of almost every student. He smiled.

"Well, now that we have all been fed," Dumbledore started, "I have a few announcements to make. First off, I'd like to welcome back Professor Grubby-Plank, who will be taking place for Professor Hagrid while he is away. Second, I'd like to introduce to you your new Defense against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Umbridge."

A small lady in lots of pink clothes stood up and nodded at all the kids, who gave a tired clap. They stopped clapping, but she didn't sit back down.

Harry frowned. He knew this lady; he had seen her at his hearing in August. A few weeks before they entered school, Harry was sentenced to attend a hearing, in which they would decide whether Harry would get expelled for doing underage magic. There were dementors near the park of his house, and he had no choice but to perform a Patronus charm to save himself and his cousin. This lady had voted against Harry coming back to Hogwarts, which made him dislike her already.

"Third, as a reminder to a couple of old students, and as a warning for the new, the Dark Forest is forbidden for any student to enter. And lastly, we have 3 new students entering their 5th year in Hogwarts, which were introduced to you before this feast. If those students would please stand upon being called on,"

The three teens looked at each other shrugged, and then stood up according to name. Sam stood up first, and winced at her full name being pronounced so loudly. Tucker was next, nodding his head at the girls he deemed hot. Next was Danny, uninformed if Dumbledore knew not to blow the secret that they had worked so hard to keep. Apparently he wasn't.

"And, Danny Fenton, also known as—"

"Hem Hem."

The new professor interrupted Dumbledore, making many of the other teachers on the bench frown. Dumbledore however, turned to look at her and she walked towards the front of the House tables. Danny, Sam, and Tucker gave out a long sigh of relief. Nobody seemed to notice anything, except for Dash, whose eyes were moving between the three as if he knew what was going on.

The lady's voice was gentle and kind, speaking rhythmically and slowly paced, but there was something more behind the voice; malignance, maybe.

She was talking about the Ministry and how they believe that a child's education was the most important. No one seemed to be listening to a word she was saying, and no one seemed to care, except for Ernie McMillan who was putting on a good face to match his gleaming Prefect badge. The only one who seemed to really be listening was Hermione, whose eyebrows furrowed together more and more until her face was in a scowl. The rest of the students were either staring off into space, chatting with their friends, or sleeping. Occasionally, Professor Umbridge gave a little cough to silence them, and they actually did be quiet, but after about 3 or 4 seconds, they were back to whatever they were doing first.

When she finished speaking, Dumbledore gave the last of his own announcements, thankfully forgetting to mention anything about Danny's ghost powers, and everyone piled out of their seats. Hermione and Ron left to show the 1st years around the school, while Danny, Sam, and Tucker walked with Harry to the common room. The most excited was Danny, who was happy to be in Gryffindor and felt lucky to be able to see the Gryffindor common room.

They stopped in front of a portrait of a Fat Lady in a pink dress, who asked for a password. Harry slapped his forehead.

"I forgot to get the password. Damn."

"No password, no entry," the Fat Lady said smoothly.

Lucky enough, Neville came running, clutching his odd plant in hand…or maybe not so lucky enough.

"Harry! I know the password, and I'm actually going to remember it this time!" He waved the plant in their faces. "_Mimbulus mimbletona_!"

The fat lady's portrait swung forward, and they walked in. Danny and Tucker gave out a gasp, and Sam just whispered a "wow". The room was painted crimson red, and there were gold shimmering curtains on the windows. There were couches and sofas placed around a bright fire. Most of the kids were lounging around and talking, and some were looking at a bulletin board after Fred and George put a poster up looking for testers on their candy.

The couch was full, and Danny took the last chair and pulled Sam to his lap, resorting to Harry and Tucker sitting on the floor. Seconds later, the common room doors opened and a bunch of little kids piled in, followed by Hermione and Ron. Ron shouted for the "midgets" to follow him, and he led them to their bedrooms. Hermione did the same with the girls, except without the "midget" comment.

The first years scattered to their rooms and Ron took a seat next to Harry, while Hermione went to go scold Fred and George about posting dangerous job descriptions on the Gryffindor notice board.

They spent most of the time talking about teachers and classes, and when they have days off of school, but Danny couldn't get his mind off of the fact that Sam had read his mind…maybe. He really didn't know what was happening, and every time he thought about it, it would just become another confusing mess. Every time he thought about the situation, though or even her name, Sam would look towards Danny as if he actually voiced something, shake her head when she realized he didn't, and then look away confused.

After a few minutes of this, they finally caught each other's attention. Danny took Sam's wrist, and pulled her to the boys' dormitories, leaving Tucker, Harry, and Ron to themselves.

"What do you think they're up to?" Ron asked, a perverted smile creeping along his face.

"I don't know, they've been acting funny all night," Tucker replied.

"Let's see," Ron said matter-of-factly, "They're all by themselves, in an empty room, with beds and curtains…"

Tucker shuddered at the thought, and quickly erased the mental pictures from his mind when Hermione came back ranting about Fred and George's stupid tactics.

* * *

"What's wrong Danny—?"

"Sam, are you reading my mind?"

Sam raised an eyebrow in skepticism. "What? Why would you think—?"

"Because before during dinner, I didn't say anything about the Hat…I thought it."

Sam stepped back. "Woah…I knew it didn't sound like you were talking. It was more like I thought you saying it, you know? I was thinking about…something, and then I heard your voice in my head, loud and clear. Danny, what was all the worry about the Sorting Hat almost putting you in Slytherin? Did it actually consider that?"

"I'll tell you about that later, with the rest of the guys. I want to try something first. Close your eyes."

Once her eyes were closed he put his hands on her shoulders and closed his eyes as well, concentrating on projecting his thoughts.

_'Can you hear me?'_ He thought, directing it towards Sam.

"Yeah…_oh!_" She gasped. "You didn't say anything did you?"

"No, I didn't. So what do you think this is?"

"Ghost powers?" She suggested.

"Nah, I doubt it. Do we know any mind-reading ghosts?" Danny asked.

"No, but that shouldn't have anything to do with it. You're the only ghost that can do the Wail, and there are plenty of things that you don't know how to do that other ghosts can do. None of them are quite as useful, but you still can't do them."

"This doesn't seem like that. It doesn't seem ghostly at all. I don't think anyone else can hear me…I've been trying to get to Tucker and Ron, but it didn't work, and every time I thought about your name, you looked, and no one else looked when I thought about them," he said hurriedly. "I think this connection thing is just between you and me," he added, his cheeks feeling hot.

"Oh…" Her blush matched his wonderfully.

"So, what were you thinking about?" Danny asked, the curiosity showing in his voice.

"Psh, I thought you could read my mind." Sam said with a slight smile. "Besides. it was nothing really important."

The couple was standing there, at most 4 inches apart, blushing and staring at each other expectantly. Sam leaned in and kissed him pulling away quickly.

"What was that for?" Danny asked sweetly. Sam melted.

"I don't know…I like kissing you," she said blushing more deeply. "It feels like something I should've done a long time ago."

Danny pulled her chin up and kissed again, deepening it instead of pulling away like Sam did.

Only when Sam kissed him, the 5th year boys didn't barge in.

They pulled apart looked up, and saw Tucker reaching for his camera, until he noticed Danny giving him the scary eyes. He stopped reaching then.

But Dash was there too, and instead of just letting it drop, he sighed and gave Tucker a handful of gold coins. Tucker took it and then excused himself to run away from Sam, who chased him down into the common room. A loud scream was heard, and Sam came back up the stairs, stuffing her wand hastily back into her pocket.

She returned to Danny's side and cross her arms, pouting like she was five. And when Danny asked what was wrong, she didn't get to answer as Tucker came back into the common room, his hair on fire, and his face covered in black streaks. He glared at Sam, and then walked over to the bed with his stuff next to it.

Seamus and Dean, the other two fifth year boys, were the only ones who were completely oblivious to who they were. They only recognized them as the people walking down the aisle with the first years. After that, they completely zoned out and didn't bother to listen to what Dumbledore or that Umbridge lady had to say.

And once again, introductions were thrown around, and carefully thought-out explanations were delivered. No further blurting out of the secret was made (for now), and finally, Sam decided to give the boys privacy and went to bed. Sam gave Danny a good night kiss, flipping the others off when they started shouting catcalls.

About 5 minutes later, all of them were talking while getting ready for bed, either about school, or about hot chicks.

Mostly hot chicks.

Eventually, it led to an argument between that Seamus kid and Harry, and he went to sleep before everyone else, hiding behind his curtains. This led to Harry going to sleep early, and then Ron. After a while, Dash and Danny were the only ones awake.

And Dash began to ask questions too many questions.

"So Danny, what's the real reason behind why you were accepted so late?"

Danny raised an eyebrow. "You called me Danny."

"Yeah, it's your name isn't it?" Dash said, stressing every syllable as if he were talking to someone mentally challenged.

Danny shook his head in disbelief. "But you're Dash. To you, my name is Fenturd, or Fentina, Fentoad, Fen-ton, Fentoenail…"

"Yeah, well, I decided that I'm not going to beat you to a pulp while you're here. Besides, at least that doesn't make my muscle-y goodness disappear. You have to be…I don't know…a _superhero_ to stand up to me." Dash said, his voice hiding a hidden meaning…he does know something…

"What are you talking about Dash?" Danny said, trying not to show the level of worry in his voice. He picked up a heavy picture frame of him, Sam and Tucker and was about to put it on the nightstand next to him.

Dash sighed. "Alright, I'm just gonna come right out and say it: You're Phantom aren't you?"

Danny dropped the frame on his toe, and bit his hand so he wouldn't cry out. _'Oh my gosh. How long has he known this? Has he told anyone? I haven't seen anyone since school ended. What if he told people back home? How am I going to go back to Amity Park?'_

"Pfft, heck no," Danny said unconvincingly. "Why would you even think that? We're nothing alike!"

Dash rolled his eyes. "So you are?"

He gave in, rolling his neck and staring at the floor. "When did you figure this out?"

"A while back. But don't worry, I didn't tell anyone…I had no proof." Dash said. Danny smiled, and still couldn't believe how nice Dash was being.

"And even if I could," Dash started again, "why would I want to? So you can undermine me in front of the entire student body? No thank you…" He said the last part with a sarcastic tone to his voice.

Danny just nodded and sat on his bed, rubbing his toe.

"So, you're really Danny Phantom…" Dash said in awe. "I can't believe people didn't see it before, I mean, I've noticed it for a while, but everyone seems oblivious…"

"Well, our town is filled with idiots, in case you haven't noticed."

"Would you mind…giving a demonstration?" he asked timidly.

Danny sighed and walked over to the sleeping boys' beds, and silently closed the curtains of each. He closed his eyes, and sent the blue-white rings around his waist; one going up, another going down. Slowly (for the effect), his regular outfit changed into a black HAZMAT suit with a white DP logo on the chest.

Dash stared, his mouth in a small smile, and his expression surprised (Danny never got tired of that). Dash chuckled, and managed to stutter out a "wow". After a few more minutes of frequently-asked questions, they finally went to bed.

* * *

**_Dream - Harry_**

_Harry was in a deep sleep, enjoying his strange dreams. He first became the captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team after eating an entire box of Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans, and then got the girl of his dreams, a fiery red headed faceless beauty. They were down by the lake enjoying a lazy Saturday while throwing orange pebbles at a green moose, leaving blue spots all over it, when the dream changed._

_He was in a dark hallway with a door at the end of it…he'd been there before, he just couldn't put his finger on it…where had he seen that door before? He stretched out his hand to open the door from a couple of feet away, when he was pulled away from it by a large ghost…was that…Danny?_

**_End Dream_**

* * *

**_Dream - Danny_**

_Danny was walking down a yellow road, hand in hand with Sam as he ate vanilla ice cream with bacon bits (his favorite). She was whining about giant purple dinosaurs that were making her listen to stupid Jessica Simpson music while sewing dresses with her mother._

_ The dream changed…_

_He was right there, reaching out for the door that was still feet away, his hand was out in front of him. It'd be so easy, just rip off the arm and while he was in pain decapitate him._

_Less than two feet away now…his job was simple; grab the boy, don't kill him. But it was just too easy. He would need just three seconds, and it'll all be over…_

**_End Dream_**

* * *

**A/N **– nothing against Jessica Simpson, I just think a lot of her songs are stupid. cheesy smile time. Anyways. 8 is done. Review!


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N **– Chapter 9. I hate the huge paragraph in the beginning of the original. I'm getting rid of that right away! WOO! And the date's made up, it's just a guess. K? k.

_I'm in the middle of editing_. I HATE THIS CHAPTER. I feel bad, I had to make some people read this.

* * *

_9/2/05 ;; 7:00 AM - Boys' Dormitory._

Harry, Ron, Neville, and Dash had woken up seconds before Seamus left the room, Dean on his tail, shrugging and giving Harry an apologetic look. He was about to stutter out an explanation, when Seamus called out his name, almost demandingly, to follow him downstairs to the common room. The other boys told Harry that Seamus was being stupid. He already knew that, though.

The only ones who seemed to have no interest in Seamus' flighty exit from the dormitories were Tucker and Danny, who were still in a deep sleep, occasionally mumbling about evil swords without technology, or about evil teddy bears in letter jackets.

Ron and Neville tried waking them up as the rest started to get dressed, but everything they tried seemed to…not work. They pelted things at them, shouted in their ears, poked them to no end, and they were still sleeping.

And when Harry sneezed, Tucker shot up, completely alert and holding an ectogun he pulled from his pillowcase, shouting a slurred "Wuzzhappenin'?"

This in turn woke Danny up, and his eyes started to glow a brilliant shade of emerald. When they realized there was no danger, Tucker went back to sleep.

Danny, on the other hand, sat straight up in his bed. The girls had just walked in.

Only to be rushed out almost immediately by complaints from Ron, Harry, and Neville to get out, as they were still in their pajamas and needed to get dressed. Danny and Dash didn't really mind. Dash was already dressed, and Danny's been seen in worse states than no clothes. Sam walked right past the three insecure boys and sat on Danny's bed, giving him a light peck on the cheek.

Hermione and Ginny refused to leave the room. Hermione, though she was saying that there was no particular reason for being here other than following Sam, was glancing at Ron every three seconds. Ginny was related to Ron, so she was avoiding all eye contact with him, but she stayed regardless; she had crushed on Harry for 4 years, and she wasn't about to pass up a chance like this.

Eventually, they all stopped arguing and the defeated (Harry, Ron, and Neville) started to dress. Hermione and Ginny sat on Harry's bed impressed with Neville's awesomely hot figure, and he blushed madly whenever they started making comments.

And whenever Ron and Hermione made eye contact, his ears turned red and she'd start rambling whenever someone tried to ask her a question.

Danny, Dash, and Sam were biting their lips, trying to hold in the laughter that was occasionally seeping out. It was like Danny and Sam's freshman year, only 4 times as worse. At least they were lucky Tucker was sleeping.

* * *

"Blimey, our schedule this year is brutal."

The five of them were all enjoying their breakfasts when Professor McGonagall started handing out class schedules. Ron had immediately started complaining.

"Monday's horrible! We've got double Potions with the Slytherins, and then we've got Divination ("I don't," Hermione boasted), then we've got Defense Against the Dark Arts ("Also with the Slytherins," Danny said), and if that Umbridge lady is anything like the I-love-children, Lets-play-duck-duck-goose lady she was yesterday, that's going to blow."

Danny grabbed the schedule that was dropped in front of his plate. "After that, we have Herbology, then…Care of Magical Creatures—"

"What?" Ron said in shock as he looked at his schedule thoroughly. "I thought we dropped that class! Oh, man," Ron knocked his head on the table.

"What's wrong with Care of Magical Creatures?" Sam asked. "I was looking forward to that."

"Nothing's wrong with the class," Hermione said quickly. "It's actually quite fun, really! It's just that, well, Hagrid tends to go over his head with the lessons, and for someone like Hagrid, doing that can get him into loads of trouble. His job is already in jeopardy, and one of his pets was almost killed because of it."

"So, what, are we going to get mauled by bears or something?" Danny asked sarcastically. "And what's a Hagrid?"

"Hagrid's the gamekeeper. He's also the teacher for that class."

"Us three were the only ones who considered Hagrid as more than a teacher," Ron said with a smirk on his face. "He's always giving us information that he shouldn't by accident. I love Hagrid's big mouth."

Harry frowned. "Do any of you know where Hagrid is anyways? Dumbledore said he wasn't here."

"He's probably doing something with the Order," Hermione said sadly. "He said something about that after the third task, remember?"

Harry, Ron and Hermione all sighed simultaneously and got up to get to their first class with Danny and Sam scarfing down the last of their breakfasts to catch up with them.

"Hey Harry!" A girl had called his name. He turned and saw Angelina Johnson striding towards him.

"Hey Angelina, what's up?"

"Listen, I've been made captain of the team this year."

"Oh yeah, I'd forgotten Wood was gone."

"Yeah him, Katie, and Alicia left," she said, a slightly disappointed look on her face. "I'm holding tryouts next Friday, and I want everyone on the team to be there, so _don't get into any trouble_. Okay?"

"I'll try." Harry added with a smile.

Angelina walked away and started to talk to Fred and George about what she had told Harry (but only after she had bought an Extendable Ear and a few Fainting Fancies).

Danny walked to Harry's side. "This school has teams?"

"Yeah, for Quidditch."

"Uh huh…Let's pretend I have no idea what 'Quidditch' is." Danny said, using air quotes for the word Quidditch. "What do you have to do?"

"There are seven people on each team: Three chasers, Two beaters, A keeper, and a Seeker. The chaser puts this big red ball called the Quaffle into these really tall hoops, which the keepers have to guard, the beaters distract the opposing team with these crazy balls that move for themselves. Those are called Bludgers. And the Seeker, that's me, finds the Snitch, which is basically a small golden ball that moves really fast and is really hard to see. When a Seeker catches the Snitch, the game is over, and their team gets an additional 150 points."

"Simple enough—"

"But, we're all on brooms."

"So you're like in the air? That shouldn't be too hard."

"Well, first you have to learn how to fly," Harry said. "Then you have to know what you're doing on the field."

Danny smiled. "I already know how to fly. Now I just need to sit on a broom and do it."

Harry scowled playfully, and the pair went to catch up with the rest of their friends out of the Great Hall to hang out by the lake.

* * *

"Silence in my classroom."

Snape had just walked into the classroom and was now striding to the front. The class immediately scurried back to his or her seats and stopped talking.

"Today you will be making the Draught of Peace, a potion that usually pops up during your O.W.L.s, so don't mess it up. Instructions are on the board," He gave the board a small tap, and the words became visible. "All the necessary ingredients are in the store cupboard. You have an hour and a half…start."

Everyone piled out of their desk to get some ingredients. Kids came and went, but after a while, all the commotion stopped, and the students were back to their seats, talking to their partners and starting the potion.

Partners. Harry was partnered up with Ron, which everyone knew was a disaster waiting to happen. Hermione was partnered up with Tucker; the techno-geek and the smartest girl in 5th year, what a surprise. Sam was with Dash, both of them trying to read the instructions on the board, and Dean was with Seamus. Everyone seemed perfectly fine with his or her partners. But Danny…unfortunately, he was stuck with the guy who couldn't boil water without burning it.

"Neville, have you ever made any potions successfully?"

Neville flushed. "Yes. It was a potion I use to feed my plants. I use it all the time."

"Okay…" Danny sighed. "I'm going to get the ingredients. You just stand there and look pretty."

Neville shook his head and laughed and watched Danny get the ingredients from the store cupboard. Once he had returned, he laid all the ingredients on the table, and the pair started to work on the potion, with Danny basically talking Neville through every step on the board and the reactions that were going to happen.

When there 15 minutes left in the class, Snape spoke up again. "A light, silver vapor should now be rising from your potion."

Danny and Neville looked around. Only three people had the right color silver: Hermione and Tucker, Sam and Dash and…themselves. In fact, their potion was probably the most correct version. The silver vapor seemed to be the most eye-catching.

Ten minutes before the class had ended, Snape had started to walk around to every table, finding some kind of nasty thing to say about whoever's potion. He seemed keen to want to comment on Neville's and Danny's potion, due to Neville's reputation, but when he looked into the potion, it was perfectly fine. Snape frowned and turned to Danny.

"Mr. Fenton, the reason there are partners is so that you can do the work together—"

"Actually, Professor," Danny interrupted, "Neville had to talk me through a lot of stuff."

Snape snarled back down at him and continued walking.

Well he would have kept going, if it wasn't for the fact that his ghost sense went off right in front of Snape.

"Uh, Professor?" Danny asked before he walked off too far. When Snape stopped, he continued. "Uh…I need to…go to the bathroom?"

Snape was looking straight through his eyes, and it was as if he knew exactly what Danny was thinking. And so he played along as little as possible.

"Fenton, this isn't—"

Before he could finish his sentence, however, a big, green dog phased through the classroom, barking madly and making green saliva fly towards all the students. Most of the kids had tried to flee the scene, but Professor Snape had locked all the dungeon doors when the class had started, and wasn't exactly rushing to go and open the doors. Snape looked in Danny's direction, and gave him a glare that would've shot daggers into him, like if it was his fault the damn dog appeared.

The dog stopped barking, and was now scanning the classroom, no doubt looking for Danny, Sam, and Tucker. When the trio managed to get together, the dog spotted them, and began to bark happily, he stepped to them and began transforming into a small dog, about the size of a 2-month old golden retriever. He jumped up to their faces with the help of the desks, and began licking their faces, and playfully biting their fingers. They immediately recognized him as Cujo, the guard dog that attacked Axiom Labs.

"Hey…puppy…" Danny started, patting the dog on the head and acting as though he had never seen him in his life. They couldn't drag any more attention to themselves.

Sam rolled her eyes and pushed Danny and Tucker away, bending down to eye level with the dog.

"Hey Cujo," she said sweetly, "what's wrong?"

The dog began barking and growling, as if telling them a story, and surprisingly, the three of them understood, as if he was talking to them with words rather than by making strangled noises. The dog kept it up for about 30 seconds, and Danny, Sam, and Tucker nodded their heads sometimes. They said things like "so that's why—" and "does that mean that—" before Cujo cut them off again. The puppy finally finished his story, a happy smile showing on his face.

"Uh…okay…listen boy, you need to go back home," Sam said to him. "We're going to handle everything that goes on in this school. Don't forget, we're learning…uh, new things this year, did _he_ tell you that?"

The dog shook his head.

"Go back to the Ghost Zone and…straighten him out a bit, if you know what I mean. Can you do that for me?"

The dog barked happily and disappeared into thin air, leaving Danny, Sam, and Tucker to think about what the dog had just said.

They stood back up, looking between each other in worry. If what Cujo said was true, than they had a lot of trouble on their hands, not including the added burden when they had to explain what happened just now to the surrounding students.

* * *

"Opennn yyourr mmmiiinnnddd to the ccrryysstall ball!! Look iinnsssiiiddee and sseeeeeeeee"

Professor Trelawney passed around the room and stopped at Harry's and Danny's table, looked at each of them and frowned, muttering something about "early deaths", and "being so young". Danny's eyebrow just went up, looking at the lady in disbelief.

_'Okay, this class, is officially the weirdest & most unneeded class EVER!'_ he thought, looking into the crystal ball that had been placed between the two boys. Harry's head went up.

"I think I see…wait that's your hand. I never knew what it was that we had to be doing."

"This class is probably going to be worse than all the other ones, isn't it?"

"It's not worse than potions," Harry grumbled

"It's _way_ worse than Potions!" Danny retorted. "At least in Potions there's some actual stuff going on, and it's easy as hell."

"Are you crazy? Snape makes that class annoyingly hard!" Harry argued.

"No, you're just lazy." Danny answered, miserably failing at hiding a grin.

"Snape ticks me off."

"Then ignore it. He's probably doing it—"

"LLOOOOKK IINNTTOO TTHHEE CCRRYYSSTTAALL BBAALLLL!!"

Danny looked at the teacher in disbelief. "Yeah, sure, what is this going to solve again?"

"Look and see the strange mysteries that lie ahead, Mr. Fenton," she said, a dreary tone to her voice. "Broaden your mind and shape your own future, lest you be—well who am I to mess with the Fates?" she said sadly.

She walked away from the boys and began observing the other students, occasionally predicting someone's horrible fate. When she got to Seamus, she had predicted that his whole family was going to get blown up twice…after they all drowned.

_'Oh yeah,'_ Danny thought, _'this class is definitely worse than Potions…'_

* * *

The 5th year students all sat in their own groups, talking about either the Potions homework or Quidditch. They all calmly awaited the arrival of their new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, and prayed that she wasn't like the woman she displayed on the day of the Welcome Back feast.

She walked into the room, and made some kids she passed by shield their eyes. She wore a bright pink cardigan with a matching skirt (a very bright matching skirt) and black shoes, with a small pink bow in her hair.

"Hello children. I am Professor Umbridge, your new Defense Against the Dark Arts Teacher. Wands away please, you will not need them." She tapped the board, and 3 lines labeled "Course Aims" appeared on the board.

**1-**_Understanding the principles underlying defensive magic._

**2-**_Learning to recognize situations in which defensive magic can legally be used._

**3-**_Placing the use of defensive magic in a context for practical use._

There was the sound of scratching sound of quills for a few moments from all the kids except for one.

Books began floating to all the desks, separating towards the kids in each row. They all picked one up, looking at the book titled, "Defensive Magical Theory" by Wilbert Slinkhard. Each of the students had curiously opened the book and began scanning the pages. The only one not bothering to open the book was Hermione, who hadn't bothered to copy what was written on the board, which caused Harry and Ron to stare. They had ever remembered Hermione neglecting a book that was placed in front of her. Her hand was in the air, fixedly staring at Professor Umbridge.

A few more minutes had passed, and they weren't the only ones staring at Hermione. At this point, every student was staring at her, and Professor Umbridge could no longer ignore Hermione's raised hand.

"What is your name dear, and did you want to ask something?"

"Yes. Hermione Granger, and the board says nothing about using defensive spells."

The students in the class looked up at the board. They reread the course aims thoroughly, looking at each other and frowning.

"Using defensive spells? Why would you want to use defensive spells in my classroom? You don't honestly think that something will attack you in here?"

"No, but—"

"We're not going to be using magic?" Sam interjected loudly. "Isn't that the whole point of this school? To learn how to use—"

"Students who wish to speak in my classroom will raise their hands, Ms. —?"

"Manson."

"Ms. Manson, are you a Ministry-trained educator?"

Sam rolled her eyes. "No."

"Well then your opinion and decisions have no value here. The Ministry has their own views. I do not wish to criticize the ways things have been run in this institution, but you have all been exposed to some very irresponsible wizards in this class" Her eyes drifted towards Harry, "very irresponsible indeed. Not to mention extremely dangerous half-breeds."

Hermione frowned. "If you're talking about Professor Lupin, he was the best we had ever—"

"Hand Ms. Granger! It is my understanding that the last teacher not only performed illegal curses in this room, he actually performed them on you students…"

"Well, Professor Moody turned out to be a Death Eater! We still learned loads—"

"Your hand is not up Ms. Granger!" Professor Umbridge's face had gone red, yet she still managed to speak in that small voice. "The view of the Ministry is that a theoretical knowledge of the spells you will need to know will be more than enough to get you through your exams."

Malfoy, who was sitting in the back with Pansy Parkinson, had been goggling at Sam during the whole class period. He seemed to be having a huge internal debate. And when he finally came to a decision, his hand shot up.

Professor Umbridge looked his way almost immediately. "And your name is?"

"Draco Malfoy (cracks were heard as every head in the room snapped to the back), and isn't there a physical bit in the O.W.L.s this year? Aren't we supposed to be able to perform counter curses?" he said warily, glancing at Sam once before he caught Umbridge's attention again.

"As long as you have studied the material enough, there is no reason you should not be able to perform the spells under carefully controlled examination conditions."

Sam side smiled at Malfoy before glaring back at Umbridge again. "Are you telling us that the first time that we perform any of the spells learned this year will be during our O.W.L.s? Isn't that a bit extreme?"

"I repeat, as long as you have studied—"

"What good is studying when we're out in the real world?" Danny scolded, his hand back up in the air and his eyes flashing green. "What if something happens, and none of us know how to do anything because the stupid material didn't help? How are we supposed to know how to do anything if we don't practice it a bit?"

"This is school, Mr. Fenton. Not the real world."

"So we're not supposed to be prepared when we're out there?" Harry said, standing up in protest as he spoke, losing his temper after staying silent this whole time. "We're not going to be in school forever, you know."

"There is nothing waiting out there, Mr. Potter," Umbridge said, losing her sweet tone as she glared back at him.

"There's nothing waiting, huh?" Danny started before Harry could, standing up next to him. "Who do we know with a long reputation of murdering and torturing people with no remorse?" He asked sarcastically.

"Hm," Harry replied, "maybe Lord Voldemort?"

The class became utterly silent, except for the few gasps that came when Harry had spoken the Dark Lord's name. They stared at Harry and Danny, both of them standing up in front of their seats, looking really, really angry with their new professor. Apparently, Danny was being deeply affected by those dreams.

Umbridge looked positively speechless, and her face was red. She took a deep breath, and as she returned to her normal color, she paced the room.

She looked away from Danny and Harry standing behind their desks. "Students, you have been told that a certain Dark Lord had returned once again, and is at large. This is a lie—"

"Don't even say it's a lie, because you know it's true." Danny interrupted, his eyes flashing dangerously between blue and green.

"Cedric Diggory did not decide to just drop dead in a graveyard!" Harry shouted.

"THAT"S ENOUGH!" she finally screeched.

Danny and Harry were fuming, both faces twisted in rage. Tucker, who was sitting behind them was holding on to the back of Danny's shirt, knowing that if he let go, he'd probably lose his temper and jump at the old bat.

Umbridge fixed her face into a calm façade. She turned to sit at her desk and grabbed a piece of pink parchment from her drawer.

"Mr. Potter, Mr. Fenton," she called, waving them forward with her stubby, ringed fingers.

They both walked to the front of the classroom, not daring to make eye contact with anyone that wasn't Professor Umbridge. She grabbed a quill and dipped it in her ink, writing on the parchment she pulled out. Danny and Harry couldn't read anything she wrote, but the pair was instructed to go to Professor McGonagall's office. Harry exited the classroom after Danny had, and at first, Danny seemed mad, but as they got closer to McGonagall's office, he seemed to lose interest in what Harry was ranting about.

"This is ridiculous! You know, they all probably know that he's really back, they're just wallowing in their fear, like if it's going to make anything any better!"

"Uh huh," Danny didn't seem to be listening.

"How can they explain Cedric Diggory's death? When are they going to realize that people don't just die in graveyards whenever they want? When they all really find out, they're in for a real scare. Fudge is going to be in so much trouble."

"Yep."

"And when that happens, I'm going to be there, laughing my ass off at his stupidity."

"Sure that's great."

"I mean, he can't just—Danny, are you even listening?"

Danny was looking up and down and over the railings. He was shaking kind of violently, and the blue mist that came out when a ghost was near was freaking out.

"What's wrong?"

"Ghosts…everywhere…Ghost Sense…went off a lot…"

Both of them began looking everywhere, when Cujo suddenly appeared. He didn't look too well though, he seemed really tired, and he was having trouble catching his breath. He hid behind Danny.

"What's wrong C-C-Cujo?" He was shaking too much. Where were these ghosts?

Cujo didn't respond but just started whimpering, repeating some of the movements and yelps that he showed Sam earlier. Now they started to worry.

"Thought you could escape jail by hiding away in this place, punk? Well, that's against the rules."

Danny and Harry turned around and saw a white-faced ghost in a white suit with about two-hundred armed ghosts behind him (how they all fit in that one hallway was impossible to say). Danny's eyes widened, but then returned back to normal as he tried to hide his fear. Harry on the other hand was having a little more trouble doing that. He didn't know whether to run or to start shooting curses towards all of the green things. But at the moment, he didn't really do anything; he was glued to the floor.

"What do you want Walker?" Danny said, no hint of fear showing on his face, or in his voice.

"Same as always, only this time, you're not getting out. You're outnumbered. If you come now, we won't have to hurt you…yet."

"Hm, let me think about that…NOT!"

Danny's body was engulfed in white rings as he transformed into Phantom and immediately started firing ectoblasts at Walker. At his command, though, the army of ghosts charged towards Danny.

He simply smiled, muttering something about not having been in a fair fight for a while, and began firing more ectoblasts, and throwing punches and kicks everywhere.

A lot of the ghosts shot right past Danny and went for Harry, but before they could do any harm, Danny threw a fully charged ectogun that he pulled from his jumpsuit towards Harry, who began firing almost immediately, alternating from shouting defensive spells to shooting from the gun.

About twenty minutes of fighting later, all of the ghosts had passed out, leaving an out-of-breath Harry trying to figure out how to recharge the dead gun and a bruised-up Danny facing Walker. His forehead was sweaty, and his breathing was coming quick and short.

Walker, who hadn't done any fighting at all yet, looked refreshed and ready to go. Danny looked like he was about to collapse.

And most inconveniently, the bell rang, and the rest of the kids in their Defense Against the Dark Arts class started to pile into the long hallway that was scattered with passed out ghosts and scorch marks on the floors and walls.

The students at the front of the crowd stopped as soon as they saw Phantom and Harry standing in the middle of watching as Danny lunged forward and attacked. Walker sidestepped, and punched him in the gut once he got up.

"Attacking the judge," he said maliciously. "That's against the rules."

Sam heard Walker's voice, and gasped, looking over to Tucker who was already pulling out guns from his boots.

They broke free of the crowd and tried to assist. Sam stood behind the fight, a Fenton thermos in one hand and a Fenton bazooka in another ("Where does she put it all?" Danny managed to ask while holding Walker off). Tucker kept running and stopped next to Harry, grabbing his gun and replacing it with another as Tucker pulled out a battered Fenton thermos containing green gunk (probably ectoplasm). He poured some of it into the bottom of the gun where cartridges usually go, and the gun whirred to life again. This took about three-and-a-half seconds

"You don't stand a chance against me, punk," Walker said with a smirk on his face. "Not now, not ever."

"Don't be so quick to judge," Danny retorted. "I've kicked your butt a few, I don't know, dozen times?"

"That was luck, something you seem to use as an advantage." Walker looked over to Sam and Tucker. "Besides, you wouldn't be anything without those two puny humans next you all the time."

"But those _'puny humans'_," Sam said mockingly as she charged up the gun, "always manage to help beat you in the end."

She fired unexpectedly and hit right smack in the middle of Walker's face; a perfect shot.

Walker fell, sliding all the way down the long hallway, finally hitting the wall at the end. He groaned, stood up, and flew towards Sam, his hands out to grab her, but before he had a chance, Danny pushed her, Tucker and Harry back. His eyes gleamed.

"Guys, cover your ears," he said warningly

The three of them did exactly what he said and covered their ears, bending down and laying their foreheads on the ground to be safe. The crowd behind them looked confused but copied them anyways, deciding it was probably in their best nature to follow the "ghost hunters."

Danny took a deep breath, and let out his Ghostly Wail, causing all of the portraits on the wall to shake, and all the inhabitants to run into neighboring portraits along the other hallway. For about a minute, the cry continued, and Walker was still standing, pushing against the attack. On and on it kept going and it didn't look like it was going to stop anytime soon.

But the second Phantom's knees hit the ground, the loud cry stopped.

Danny tried to stay conscious. There was no way that he was going to let his secret be discovered in a fight with Walker. But it wasn't looking like he had much of a choice; the edges of his vision were already starting to blur.

Walker had his hands out in front of him, trying to balance himself before he fell. He was walking kind of slowly and drunkenly to Danny as he was trying to stand up.

Sam ran to Danny's side. She pulled out a thermos and before Walker tried to escape she sucked him into the Fenton thermos she had in her hand, along with all of the other ghosts that Danny and Harry managed to take out.

Danny wasn't doing a good job at staying awake anymore. He was dizzy, and the energy he used on the Wail was pretty much all the energy he had. The more he tried to stay awake, the less likely it was going to be.

He looked at Sam, and everything went black.

* * *

**A/N** – edited a SHITLOAD of this chapter. :P lol ONLY TEN CHAPTERS LEFT UNTIL A NEW UPDATE! lawl, don't worry i'm not going to wait until i finish editing to update, you silly goose! k so i finished editing ch9 on the 23rd of augusttt, and the next thing that's coming out is ch20. WOO! be happy.


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N** – alright, I'm up to 10. I love this chapter (lol) it's kinda crackish at the end XDD. I think I was high when I wrote the ending of this one lol. Whatever. _**Hugs not drugs**_.

**Disclaimer** – Nope. Nothing.

* * *

Danny woke up in a daze a few hours later, staring upwards to a blurry white ceiling. He heard voices, but his eyes had closed again and refused to open, so he couldn't place the voices with the names and faces. The voices kept interrupting his train of thought, causing his head to stir. He managed to let out a little groan, and rubbed his eyes open.

There were six people around him, five of them on chairs, and one at the head of his bed right next to his head, stroking his hair. At first, he had no idea who these people were, due to his blurred vision and pounding headache, but the thoughts slowly came back to him.

The girl who was next to his head began whispering sweetly to him. He knew who that was. He was enjoying what she was saying, pulling a small smile onto his face, when a loud voice interjected hers.

"Dude, are you okay?" He knew who that was, too.

"I'm fine, Tucker. What happened?" Danny put his hand to his head. "My head is killing me."

"You were in a huge fight after Defense Against the Dark Arts." The redheaded told him. Was that Harry or Ron…which one of them had red hair? "When you did that yelling thing, the other ghost was holding up for a bit, but he couldn't really do much. Well anyways, you were on the floor in a right state and he was wobbling towards you, and then Sam used a paint can or something to catch it in."

Yep. That was definitely Ron. "When it ended, though…"

"What?" Danny asked, noticing the faces each one of them had on after he had figured out who was who. "Did someone see something? Did they all see something? Oh no, this isn't good." His eyes widened and he started hyperventilating. "I'm going to get ambushed by crazed fans and then I'll have to surf a crowd and then I'll have to dress in a stupid football outfit and then my parents are going to be held ransom for three stupid gems and then the teddy bears and the evil space ships and stupid comic book villains and I'm going to have to use psychology and then I'll get a headache and then—"

"Danny, _chill_!" Sam yelled.

He gulped a huge breath of air and nodded.

Sam brushed the hair out of his eyes and looked into them. "This isn't Amity Park. Freakshow's in custody, and the Gauntlet was blown to smithereens, remember? That's not going to happen again. Besides, no one saw everything…"

"What do you mean 'no one saw everything'?"

"Well, Malfoy made a connection through me and Tucker. When you passed out, you started transforming, but we managed to pull you around the corner fast enough so no one saw everything. Harry, Ron, and Dash held the class back when we started to drag you out. They said they heard Malfoy say something about 'that Muggle ghost' being a student in the school, because they saw your robes…."

Danny sighed and shook his head. "The one time I can start fresh and leave the ghost business behind, it follows me. Even Walker almost brought me down."

"Well, that's because he had about a hundred or more of his guards standing ready to jump in front of a bullet to save him," she reassured him. "If he was going against you one-on-one, he wouldn't have had the chance to attack. So just lay back and relax, already."

Danny was pushed lightly onto the pillows. He smiled when she bent down and kissed the crown of his head. They all sighed, except for Dash, Harry, and Ron, who had some questions that they wanted answered.

"How powerful _are_ you?"

"How long had you been fighting for?"

"Who's Walker?"

Danny put his hand up and shushed them. "In order, Walker is the Ghost Zone Police Department's warden. He makes sure that no one can escape that prison under any circumstances, making ridiculous rules up as he goes. Harry and I had been fighting all those stupid ghosts since we were let out to go see Professor McGonagall. And as for the power question…I'm not sure. Some of the most powerful ghosts in the Ghost Zone are scared me."

Danny frowned and looked down at his hands. He had so much potential, so much control; any leader would step down at his command. His control was amazing. The way it felt…he liked it…he wanted it…

Danny's eyes turned red and then blue, but Sam and Tucker didn't notice. Usually, they were the ones that did, but they were busy whispering between themselves. Unfortunately someone else saw.

"What happened to your eyes?" Dash asked.

The others looked at him, and then at each other, trying to figure out a logical explanation for his eye color changing without making it sound unintelligent.

They all shouted their own version of what happened at different jumbled times.

"I have eye problems."

"Yeah, his retinas are all screwy."

"They've always done that."

"It was a gift from my mother!"

"Red's his favorite color."

"His eyes are _magical_!"

Dash laughed loudly.

"Does anyone mind telling me the truth?"

Danny's eyes searched for Sam's, asking her what he should do mentally (it wasn't something hard, they realized. It was just thinking towards someone else). She shrugged and gave him a look of uncertainty. Danny turned to Dash.

"Alright, fine. But you can't tell anybody. _Ever_. Got it?"

Dash nodded solemnly.

"You know how I have those…" Danny looked around and saw Madam Pomfrey in the middle of reading names down a list, her head inclined towards their group.

He cleared his throat and lowered his voice. "Those special abilities?"

Dash nodded again, leaning in closer to hear.

"Remember when I turned myself in for cheating during the CATs?" Danny said, waiting for another nod. When he got one, he continued. "Well, in…a different time, I didn't turn myself in, and you'd all be dead and I'd basically rule the world."

Danny, Sam and Tucker cringed at the memory while everyone else around them paled. Harry, Ron and Hermione, having heard the story already in different context, zoned in and out, not wanting to relive the mental images.

"See, I was never meant to be caught…or maybe I was. But either way, my family, Sam and Tucker, and Mr. Lancer were all supposed to die in an explosion at the Nasty Burger. And Vlad, my dad's college buddy and my worst enemy, was to take custody of me.

"Supposedly, in the other future, I was miserable and couldn't live the emotions my human half was making me feel, so I asked him to rip me apart; a human and a ghost, rather than both mixed together."

They all were listening now. Danny seemed to be revealing a lot more to them than Sam and Tucker did on the day before their departure to Hogwarts.

"Immediately, it was a bad idea. But Vlad complied, and when he used the Ghost Gauntlets (an invention my dad made for close combat) on me, my ghost half took them from Vlad and ripped him apart. And so now there was me, there was Vlad, and there was Plasmius and Phantom. And Phantom merged with Plasmius to make…" Danny shuddered and didn't finish.

"…to make Dark Dan." Tucker finished for him. "Plasmius' evil side overtook Phantom, and although there's more Phantom shown physically, the mental attributes are purely Plasmius. And the eyes…the eyes were crimson red."

Once again, Harry, Ron and Hermione saw Sam and Tucker shaking. Danny's eyes had a dead look in them as he stared down at his hands, his lips curled in what could only be revulsion. There was so much he was capable of…he could stroke a soap bubble without popping it if he was in control of himself, or stop a stampeding herd of rhinos.

His eyes once again flashed. Only they were green this time. Bright vivid green.

Dash swallowed his fear before asking his question. "So what does that mean, you're going evil or something?

"_No_," Danny said abruptly, "I'm not. I just have these…images every once in a while when I think too hard about anything to do with Dark Dan…or anything to do with control really."

"So, you can't control this? And if it completely takes over…"

Danny sighed heavily. "If this completely takes over, we're all dead."

Dash nodded, turning his eyes away from Danny to hide the disappointment he knew was there.

They all were quiet, taking the information in, occasionally sharing a glance at each other, Danny and Harry glancing between each other more frequently, knowing each other's fate, feeling the burdens of their choices and sacrifices weigh down on everyone in the room.

Dash was the first to speak up. "Alright, so how do we stop it?"

Danny was puzzled. "Stop what?"

"What else? This malevolent spirit that's threatening to come out; how do we stop it?"

Everyone around the room looked at Dash like they'd seen the light for the first time. Of course, no one had actually been thinking of a way to _stop_ the evil.

"I think that the piece of Dan, or rather the piece of whatever it is that's threatening to come out, that's in you, now, is the only thing that's holding him together outside of the time line," Sam said, worrying her lower lip with her teeth. "If we destroy that, we'll destroy him."

"We can't. The only way to do that would be to split me and my ghost half apart, and it's not exactly a good idea. I've already split myself twice, both of them ending catastrophically."

Dash scrunched his forehead. "Well, there has to be another way, right? I mean there must be a ton of other options to consider now that you're in the Wizarding World…right?"

They all turned to Hermione, who was already digging her nose in a book. She flipped pages and marked down some notes a few times, before looking up at the crowd.

"What? I'm looking!"

* * *

"Why did Danny have to go so soon? I can't do this by myself!"

Valerie was stuck up in a tree, courtesy of the Box Ghost, and she was waiting for her glider to autopilot back to her, which was taking an awfully long time, according to her patience. So she was stuck in a tree, being pelted by acorns from angry squirrels.

When her glider finally arrived, it started cutting off large branches and small ones, trying to free Valerie. She started wriggling free, and eventually she was hanging on one branch. She expected it to come down to her feet and lift her out of the way of the branch.

The glider hadn't stopped chopping off the branches though, and it was going for the only one that was keeping her up.

"Wait, don't cut that! Ah!" She tumbled down the tree and landed face down on the floor. "What I wouldn't give for a jetpack instead." (The glider whined.)

"I AM THE BOX GHOST! I WILL—AAAH!"

Someone had captured the pest in the Thermos, but it wasn't Valerie. She looked around, hoping she'd find Mr. and Mrs. Fenton, but instead she saw their less-than-capable-ghost-hunter daughter, Jazz. She was capping the thermos, and trotting over to Valerie. She held out her hand to help her up.

Valerie took it reluctantly, eyeing the release button on the thermos and making sure that Jazz's fingers were nowhere near it.

Jazz rolled her eyes at the young huntress. "You know, you and Danny aren't the only ones that can catch ghost. I _have_ improved."

Valerie chuckled. "You can't be too wary when there's a Fenton involved."

It was Jazz's turn to laugh now.

Valerie wiped all the grass off of her front side, and checked her scanners for any sign of ghosts. When her equipment beeped, the two girls looked at each other and flew off, Valerie on her glider, and Jazz on (much to Valerie's distaste and jealousy) her parents' brand new jetpack.

* * *

Madam Pomfrey was shuffling her way to Danny's bed. "Only the first day back and you've already got me working to the bone…out of my way, all of you."

Madam Pomfrey was mending to Danny's now-minor scratches. About an hour ago, they seemed to be bleeding uncontrollably, and now it seems as though he jumped into a rosebush. The older witch examined the scratches and the small bit of blood that was trickling down his left arm. She swore she could see a shade of green, but she shook her head and wiped the blood clean off, using her wand to close up the scratches. As she was cleaning, she occasionally looked up at Danny's face, and he seemed to be kind of aloof, secretly hoping that she wouldn't catch sight of anything unusual. She would have to talk to Dumbledore about this.

Once Madam Pomfrey left to her office, they all continued their conversations. Harry and Danny had just finished explaining their most recent dreams to Dash, Ron, Tucker, Hermione and Sam, and Harry and Danny had gradually moved away from each other, both thinking the same thing: "What if I actually _hurt_ the guy?"

"There are a couple of ways to separate the evil, and they're probably really painful, based on the pictures in this book." Hermione told Danny. "There has to be another way…"

"Let's not worry about doing all of that stuff until the evil stuff has gotten really bad. For now, let's do our best to make it through our first week of school. We've already missed Care of Magical Creatures, and we shouldn't miss anything else."

* * *

It was Madam Pomfrey worrying her lip now as she sat across from the Headmaster. But he remained unmoved, unwilling to let her know anything more than she already did.

"Albus, Danny Fenton, the new student, came to the Hospital wing after supposedly collapsing down the stairs." Madam Pomfrey said. "He's a strange kid, that one. He had these big scratches and bruises, and he was bleeding like mad. I left for just a few seconds to get some dittany, and when I got back, it looked nothing more than if an angry cat had got him while he slept."

Dumbledore smiled sweetly. "Poppy, do not worry about Daniel Fenton. He is, like you said, a strange kid. He is unlike all the other students. He won't ever need to be in the Hospital Wing for more than a day or so, unlike Mr. Potter or Mr. Weasley."

"But Albus, what makes him so different?"

"I'm sorry, but I cannot say. I've been told not to say anything. I don't think Mr. Fenton would like it if I were to reveal his innermost secrets to you. I wouldn't want to provoke him in such a way; he is probably the only person in the world that I will never be able to defeat, no matter what I throw at him."

Madam Pomfrey eyes widened. "Albus, surely you are exaggerating. The boy has been training with magic for only two months!"

"Do not underestimate him, Madam Pomfrey," was all the Headmaster told her.

"So what if he gets hurt? How am I supposed to do anything if I don't know what—"

"Mr. Fenton and his friends have taken care of knowing what to do when he gets harmed. He probably shouldn't have come to you today, as a matter of fact, but I heard his friends had dragged him there, correct?"

Madam Pomfrey nodded her head. "Albus, the boy's blood is different. It's not even of the same—"

"Like I said, I cannot tell you anything. He has himself well looked after, Poppy. He and his friends know what's best for him."

"I trust you Albus, but if any severe damage comes to that boy and I can't do anything to stop it…"

"I'll take all of the blame. He's a smart kid; he knows what he's doing." Dumbledore reassured her.

_'I hope.'_

* * *

_**Friday **__**Friday **__**Friday**__** Friday **__**Friday **__**Friday **__**Friday **__**Friday **__**Friday **__**Friday**_

"Ah, finally, Friday has come at last. This week has been too long."

The 5th year Gryffindors were all exiting Professor Snape's classroom and were each on their way to either the common room, or the Great Hall for dinner. Friday had finally come and there were no Muggle ghosts since the Walker incident ("They all probably chickened out after they found out about you totally owning Walker's ass," Tucker suggested loyally with a smile to his half-ghost friend).

While walking up the stairs towards the Fat Lady's portrait, they started to hear loud music coming from the top of the stairs. When they got there, the Fat Lady was covering her ears, frowning at the obnoxious sounds from within.

"PASSWORD?" She shouted over the music.

"Mimbulus Mimbletona," Dash told her.

"WHAT?"

He told her again, and she opened the door to the common room, making the loud music impossible to ignore. They walked in, and saw everyone partying. There were cups and bottles thrown all over the place, and the music that was blasting was making everyone shout. Mostly everyone was dancing, and mostly couples sat on the couches and chairs, all on top of each other, making out.

The other students behind the seven teens walked right past them and went to meet up with friends waving them over, or to march directly up to their dormitories, hoping for some peace and quiet.

Harry, Ron, and Dash followed almost immediately afterwards, grabbing a cup of something one of the 6th years gave them. Danny, Hermione, Sam, and Tucker just stood there with their jaws open wide.

The lovebirds looked at each other once, and then immediately ran into the party, hoping there was some kind of anything that would relieve the stress from their shoulders, with Tucker running in straight after, searching for the twins and their newest invention.

Hermione, however, was boiling. Her face was turned down into a frightening scowl that would do the Fright Knight proud. She searched around the room for the only two people that could've came up with this brilliant idea, and made a B-line right to them

"_Fred! George!_"

The twins turned away from Angelina Johnson and a different 7th year that Hermione didn't know the name of, and smiled at her.

"Yes?" They said in perfect unison.

"_What_ is going on here? Why is everyone—is _that firewhiskey you're holding_?"

"We're having a Congratulations-we-got-through-the-first-week party," George said cheekily.

"The firewhiskey was courtesy of me, George, and Lee Jordan," Fred said right afterwards.

"The party wasn't our idea though."

"The 5th years that had gotten here early thought up of this brilliant idea." (Hermione's neck was getting tired of looking from one twin to the other)

"We just supplied it. Check it out." George handed her the bottle he was holding.

She looked at the label. "Everlasting Bottles? What is this?"

"Yeah," George replied, "We made them a few weeks back, and we had them tested, but we didn't know when to use them, so we decided now would be perfect. When you fill it up, whatever is in it, even if it's just a drop, will immediately fill to the top."

"They won't run out for about a week, and it won't go bad either."

"There's a snag when it comes to alcoholic beverages, though."

"When you put the alcohol in, it'll give you about 7 or 8 bottle's worth, but that's it. It won't refill. That's something we are going to fix pretty soon."

"It's okay, though, they're definitely going to sell."

Hermione huffed. "Not if I can help it."

She stomped off and looked for Harry and Ron, which took her about 15 minutes. They were each holding an Everlasting Bottle in both hands filled with what could only be firewhiskey, slurring their words and laughing at each other. She gave up on them and started looking for anyone else she knew that wasn't completely inebriated.

Danny and Sam were now among the couples seated at the couches, singing a song about someone named John Jacob Jingle Heimer Schmidt, and each were holding a bottle, taking a long swig after every three or four words. Tucker seemed to be the only one without a bottle in his hand, only because he had set it down to embrace Parvati Patil.

The first, second and third years were, for the most part, all passed out in a corner, the remains of pounds and pounds of candy scattered all around them.

She sighed, finally giving in, and grabbing a bottle. _'Well, we don't have any homework due on Monday, and hey, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em, right?'_

**-crack starts here. hugs not drugs. alcohol's bad, too-**

* * *

The NextMorning…

_There is no story here. Our favorite Gryffindors are still partying, and not a single one of them show any signs of finishing. Come back later, they might have some more of those cool bottles. Fred and George might even get so wasted, they won't notice us stealing their awesome goodies. When are they going to end this fantastic party, you ask? Put it this way, they just filled another crateful of bottles with firewhiskey and butterbeer._

_Hey…is he…he's taking Sam to the dormitories! Daniel Fenton, get back down here this instant! THIS IS THE AUTHOR SPEAK—what? Is that Hawaiian Punch in those bottles? GIMME!_

--line--

The Morning After…

_They're still not done, but the Hawaiian Punch was delicious. This party is getting WAY out of hand. Maybe I should get Professor Dumbledore or Professor McGonagall to stop this, but knowing our luck, they'll probably party right next to all the kids, and then Dumbledore'll drop dead because of alcohol poisoning. And exotic dancing. Professor Snape might prove promising in ending this little gathering. But then again, all those points they'd lose…is that candy? Candy _and_ firewhiskey? WEE!!_

**BEEEEEEEEEEEEP**

**Uh…our author just joined the party, and is now drinking with Neville, the sexiest creature alive. This might take a while. It's only 1:40 AM, and they don't show any signs of finishing today. I don't think they're ever going to finish. But then, who's going to write the story? **_**Me**_**? You want **_**me**_** to start the next chapter? But I'm just a figment of your imagination. I'm not even really here. How are we ever going to get to the next chapter if our author is partying with the Gryffindors? Isn't she a Slytherin? Oh great, Malfoy's going to get a great laugh out of this. She'll have to—ACORNS? WEE!**

_PLEASESTANDBY PLEASESTANDBY PLEASESTANDBY_

staticstaticstaticstaticstaticstaticstatic **HUGSNOTDRUGS**staticstaticstaticstaticstaticstaticstatic


	11. Chapter 11

"Ow…oh god, my head…"

The party had ended once the last of the Gryffindors had passed out, which was at about 3:30 that morning.

Danny looked down at the watch he was wearing ("When did I get this?"). It read 5:46. He hadn't been the first to wake up, as he saw most of the seventh years (the ones that were awake) placing Sobriety charms on themselves and on their peers.

The first, second and third years were gone, having been led to the dormitories after everyone kept tripping over their feet, and the people who had already cast their Sobriety charms were now leading the other passed out people to their dormitories for a couple of hours of sleep to start the day.

Besides Danny, the only other fifth year awake in the common room was Hermione, who seemed to have already mastered and cast the N.E.W.T. level charm on herself the second she realized she had a raging hangover. She was walking around with a giant garbage back that seemed to never fill up, cleaning up after everyone and muttering to herself about Elfish welfare.

Danny unwrapped himself from Sam's arms, being careful not to wake her up and let her lay down on the spot where he'd been sitting. He took a quick glance at Tucker, who had occupied the chair with Parvati again. They were sleeping, Parvati on his lap and her head on his shoulder.

Shooing Hermione and her wand away, he walked up to the boys' dormitories, where the only ones awake and sober were Seamus and Dash playing a game of what looked to be like normal Go Fish. They both nodded to Danny in recognition and he nodded back, walking to his bed and collapsing in it, closing the curtains around him to try and get some more comfortable sleep.

* * *

Four hours later, the Gryffindor common room was in a panic.

"Has anyone seen my shoe?"

"Give me back my quill!"

"Can we all just lower our voices _please_?"

"_Where's_ _my_ _watch??_"

Most of the students had gotten over their hangovers, with the help of Hermione and the seventh years, but there were still people who were sleeping that they needed to wake up or people still spinning with a hangover that needed Sobriety charms in order to not get into any trouble.

By the time the seventh years went to class, only the hung over fifth years remained. Hermione, having no time to do any more spells on her own, had no choice but to let them go to class that way. She crossed her fingers and hoped that Potions that day wouldn't be so horrible.

They all had twenty minutes to get to class, and most of them were still walking wobbly. And they had Potions first. Snape was definitely not going to make things easy for them.

* * *

"Today we will be brewing a Calming Draught. Not exactly O.W.L. level, but it does tend to pop up unexpectedly. The instructions are on the board, ingredients are in the store cupboard. You have an hour. Start."

The Slytherins shot up and out of their seats to get the better half of the ingredients while the Gryffindor 5th years walked at a slow and steady pace, grabbing hold of anything to keep themselves walking steady. Once they were back in their seats, they started to read the instructions on the board, a couple of them grabbing their heads to keep them from spinning.

Seamus and Dash had partnered up, making them the only sober pair in the class. They set to work on the potion almost immediately, having no repercussions whatsoever. Danny and Tucker were working together, as were Harry and Ron, and they were having a hard time at putting the steps in order. Sam was with Hermione, so while Snape wasn't watching, she cast a Sobering charm on her. Dean and Neville were hopeless. The sniggers coming from the Slytherins made everything worse.

By the time Snape had begun to walk around the classrooms, almost every potion made by the Gryffindors were worse than failures.

"This potion is at a 3rd year level, and none of you can get it right. And most of you are causing accidents. Pull yourself together, or eventually you won't have any points left in your House."

He walked around the classroom some more, and stopped at Danny and Tucker's. What was supposed to be a light blue looked like muddy water and smelled of turpentine. "Well Fenton, seems like that streak of yours is over. _Evanesco_."

The contents of the cauldron disappeared, but Danny and Tucker hadn't noticed. They knew they were getting zero marks for the day, but at this point, the sound of anything was enough to give them pounding headaches, and with all the small chattering that the Slytherins were doing about the Gryffindors, they were about ready to collapse. If that wasn't bad enough for Danny, his ghost sense went off, and a voice was heard vibrating off the walls of the dungeon.

"Hello Daniel. You look positively horrible."

The whispers from the Slytherins ended as they looked around for the source of the noise. Their eyes fell on the two glowing red ones floating just above Danny's head.

He rubbed his temples and looked around for a few seconds, finally meeting the eyes of Plasmius. Danny groaned, gently putting his head into his hands and rubbing his eyes, not seeming to care about the words that came out of his mouth.

"What do you want, Vlad? I'm not exactly up for a fight now with you right now."

"Oh really?" Vlad sighed. "Tut tut. I guess you're right, I mean you look positively awful."

"Shut up, Vlad. Even without a hangover, your voice gives me pounding headaches. And how do you know about the school Houses? You're not…" Danny sighed. "You know what, I don't even care. Can you come back later?"

"Are you sure you weren't doing anything heroic at the time—"

"Just go, Vlad!"

Plasmius sneered at Danny before turning invisible and leaving.

"I will be back, Daniel. Count on it."

The voice echoed across the dungeon, and before it finished vibrating off the walls, Snape's hovering figure appeared right behind the spot Vlad was standing on. He sneered ten times worse than Plasmius did, and sent a letter to Professor McGonagall with one of the Slytherins, taking off 50 points in one sitting.

* * *

Malfoy was waiting outside of the classroom for the Gryffindors to exit, holding his textbooks far apart. When they walked out, he smashed them together, and six of the ten Gryffindors hissed and glared at Malfoy, Danny being one of them. At Malfoy's snigger, Sam glared as well, and he cringed, almost as if he felt sorry for her.

Danny's glare was the one that made Malfoy look away, as a glowing green tint overcame the blue. Malfoy stared, unable to look away until Danny did, and then walked quickly in the opposite direction.

Danny and the other 5th years begged and pleaded with Hermione for a Sobering charm right as Professor McGonagall appeared. They scattered, but she managed to get a hold on Danny, Harry and Hermione, and led them to her office.

"I am absolutely disgusted! How is it possible that it hasn't even been a month into the new year and already 50 points have been taken from the Gryffindor house?" she yelled, making Danny groan and close his eyes.

"Oh, for heaven's sake." She held out her wand. "_Siccus Abstentis_." The pounding Danny had had vanished. The world had stopped spinning in place, and he was no longer dizzy.

"Don't think that you'll be getting off that easy! Maybe I ought to take another 50 points from your house, teach you a lesson!"

Hermione frowned. "But Professor, we didn't do anything! We were just there, where we were supposed to be, in the common room!"

Harry and furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. "Uh, Professor, I don't know if I should be asking this, but why am I here?"

"Professor Umbridge sent you and Mr. Fenton here last week, do you remember? But due to an unfortunate event that side-tracked you two on your way here," Professor McGonagall looked over to Danny, "you never actually made it to my office."

"Err, right. Sorry about that." Danny said, scratching the back of his neck.

McGonagall turned back to Harry. "Mr. Potter, you need to know that Umbridge isn't exactly the woman she looks as though she might be. She has her own way of doing things, and she has every right to do them. Tread carefully around Dolores Umbridge, for she does not play by our book.

"Mr. Potter and Mr. Fenton, you two have detention with Professor Umbridge. Mr. Fenton, you have today, Tuesday and Wednesday until 5 o'clock, and Mr. Potter you have Thursday and Friday until 7 o'clock."

* * *

"This has to be the worst Monday of my life."

The six of them were heading back towards the castle once they were dismissed from Care of Magical Creatures with Professor Grubby-Plank. Things went pretty smoothly in that class, no accidents like mixing wrong ingredients, dropping crystal balls, or falling asleep on their textbooks, though they were still stuck with the same question: Where was Hagrid?

"So, is that class always going to be as simple as examining little twig bugs?" Danny asked.

"No, Hagrid has a tendency to make things a bit more…interesting. And that's putting it lightly," Harry explained.

"Yeah, one time he took us into the forest to see hippogriffs, and almost got sacked because of it," Ron said.

Danny, Sam and Tucker nodded. "Alright then. Here's hoping he comes back soon. That had to be the most boring class all day."

* * *

Dinnertime was a lot less chaotic than most of the Gryffindors had predicted. From what they had been through in the morning, they expected groans and moans, and cups spilling. But by the time they all gathered in the Great Hall, the hangovers had disappeared and everything was back to normal.

If anything, the worst thing was that someone's plate had fallen and broken onto the floor…at the Ravenclaw table. Luna Lovegood was seen looking upwards towards one of the high windows (apparently pointing out a Blibbering Humding), not even noticing the contents of her plate scattered on the floor.

_Maybe the party hadn't been such a bad idea after all_, Danny wondered.

——————_3 WEEKS LATER——————_

**MONDAY, 27TH SEPTEMBER **

**The Daily Prophet.**

**MINISTRY SEEKS EDUCATIONAL REFORM: EDUCATIONAL DECREE NUMBER TWENTY-THREE.**

**Dolores Umbridge Approved First-Ever Hogwarts "High Inquisitor"**

—…—…—…—…—…—…—…—…—…—

**BY ORDER OF DOLORES UMBRIDGE, HOGWARTS HIGH INQUISITOR**

**No festivities are to be planned without the consent of Dolores Umbridge or without written formal consent signed by both Dolores Umbridge and the current headmaster at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.**

**The above is in accordance with Educational Decree Number Twenty-Four**

**Ministry of Magic Signed Dolores Jane Umbridge**

* * *

**A/N** -** 7/17/09** - Me no like this chapter. It's so annoyinggg. BUT LOOK AT THE DATES PEOPLEEEEE!!!!!!! I'm editing that, so if your reading this and then later on it's different, it's cus I'm still working on it.


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N – **Still in the editing process. Fixing dates, times, blah blah. More later.

* * *

The students were walking out of the Great Hall after dinner on a very confusing, but overall happy Monday three weeks after the Gryffindor party, or at least happy until they saw that plaque swinging from the rusty nail that Filch had gladly put up.

Umbridge was the first "High Inquisitor" of Hogwarts.

Mutters and growls passed through the mouths of the passing students, and many of them stayed to further inspect the plaque.

Danny let go of Sam's hand to walk closer, pushing his way to the front, Harry and Hermione directly behind him.

"What does that even mean?" Danny muttered allowed.

"It was in the paper earlier today, remember?" Hermione answered. "_'The Inquisitor will have powers to inspect her fellow educators and make sure that they are coming up to scratch._'" She recited off memory.

Scowling, Danny and Harry backed away from the plaque and continued walking, disregarding their friends behind them in frustration. The same thoughts were streaming through all of their heads.

There was no one who could have possibly told her about the party. Whoever said something would just get into as much trouble as anyone else, just for being there.

But someone did say something. There was no other alternative possibility.

Perhaps Filch? He did walk around at night patrolling the corridors, but was there any chance that he had bothered to walk past the Gryffindor common room? The castle was huge, and he could've been anywhere. Then again, he checked up on the Gryffindors most often, given their history for wandering out at night and meddling into everyone's business.

So who could it have been?

* * *

"She found out," Ron growled. "It was probably Filch, the cockroach."

Most of the 5th years were sitting in the boys' dormitories with except for Danny, who was stuck in detention, and Seamus and Dean (Seamus left because of Harry; Dean left because Seamus grabbed him).

"You have no proof of that, Ronald," Hermione said patiently.

He rolled his eyes. "Well, it's not like he cares much for any of the students anyways. Remember our first year? He complained because he wasn't able to hang kids from their thumbs. He's a git—"

"I wonder what she's doing to Danny," Sam interrupted. "He's probably ironing her disgusting pink cardigans or some other form of torture," she shuddered.

"Either that or forcing him to read some of the garbage in the Daily Prophet." Ron said. "They haven't announced anything about recent deaths, and there's been loads according to Dad."

"Well, of course." Hermione said, "the Ministry is trying to control everything, and they're trying to get people to calm down. Fudge doesn't want to believe that You-Know-Who's back, no one does—"

"That doesn't exactly make him disappear, does it?" Harry said angrily.

They all turned to him. He was leaning against the headboard of his four-poster, his arms resting on his knees. His scar was throbbing in pain, but he made no motion to try and stop it. It's supposed to hurt more now that Voldemort was alive, right? He was angry though, and he didn't know why. Maybe Voldemort was angry or something. He has felt Voldemort's feelings before; maybe it was him that was making him this mad.

"Fudge is going around telling people that Voldemort's not back, that I'm going mad, and that Dumbledore's going senile! If Fudge were anything close to intelligent he'd do something about the new army Voldemort's building up, instead of being a bloody coward."

They all sat in silence for a couple of minutes, Sam and Tucker being the only ones making noise, whispering back and forth about Danny's own problem. That was another thing; Harry not being able to control his temper is not too much of a big deal, unless it lands him in detention. But if Danny were to lose it that quickly, it could not only get him into trouble, but it could also cause him to flash into evil-jerky-older-self mode, and it was a matter of time before he didn't flash back.

Sam sighed silently. "We have to make sure he keeps his temper under control," she whispered to Tucker, "Danny won't do anything stupid if he's not thinking about the dream, and there's plenty of stuff here that'll make sure of that. All we have to do is be ready when he does lose control with the weapons to capture Dan, and get the other piece of Dan out of Danny…ugh, this is giving me a headache."

"Don't worry, Sam, Danny will be fine." Tucker said. He hesitated, but continued. "Just one problem: if Danny does flash to evil…how are going to fight him? Not only is he our best friend, but all of the ecto-weapons are too weak for him."

Sam and Tucker looked at each other, then groaned rather loudly, causing everyone to turn their heads. They plastered on a great big fake smile, and continued to sulk in their seats.

* * *

Danny walked slowly to detention in Professor Umbridge, being in no mood to be early. Besides, if he was close to being late, he could always just fly his way to her office, there was no one around to see him.

He reached the end of the hallway and turned into the hallway of Umbridge's office. He checked his watch, still not knowing where he had gotten it from, and groaned. _'Damn, I'm almost there, and I'm five minutes early. Of all times in my life, I choose NOW to be early?'_

He walked, or more like dragged his feet all the way to Umbridge's office, his only intention wanting to be to sleep for hours and hours with no interruptions. There goes that wish…

His hand touched the cold doorknob, and he slowly turned it, not knowing which to expect: medieval torches and pitchforks, or fluffy bunnies and bows. He wasn't too sure which he was ready for, either.

_'Well, here goes nothing…'_

Danny walked into the office. From what he had heard, the office was always different, every year. This year, the theme was pink. Sparkle-covered plants were seen resting around the room with a doily around each of the flowerpots. The walls were covered in portraits of mewing cats, the sound piercing his oversensitive ears. Once he mentally cursed his senses, he looked around for Professor Umbridge, who was at the moment, nowhere to be found.

"Great, she's not even—"

"Good Evening, Mr. Fenton, please have a seat."

Danny jumped. He looked more closely at the chair, which was being occupied by Umbridge, her outfit and rosy cheeks matching the room around her. He took a seat at the doily-covered desk, dropped his book bag and stared blankly at the piece of parchment that sat neatly on the desk.

"You are going to be doing some lines, just as Mr. Potter will do when he comes. You are to write, _'I must not tell lies'_."

Danny sighed. He bent down and started to reach for a quill and ink, when Professor Umbridge interrupted him with another one of her signature coughs, and pointed to the black quill next to the parchment on his desk.

He picked it up and studied it curiously, wondering why he hadn't noticed it before, it stuck out completely.

"Uh, Professor, I have no ink."

"You won't be needing it." She replied with a smirk. "Go ahead, start"

He rolled his eyes and began writing in the red ink that he assumed came from nowhere, or at least that was before he completed the sentence.

_'I must not tell lies.'_

Danny winced as he felt a small prick. He looked over at his other hand and saw the words he had written perfectly etched into his left hand. The words rippled for a bit, then faded away, leaving the skin looking a little red.

He raised an eyebrow. _'Is this supposed to hurt?'_

Danny smiled wryly, hoping to sneak a look of Umbridge's face when she realized he didn't feel any pain from the quill. After mentally thanking his ghost powers for his increased endurance, he continued writing.

Umbridge stared in disbelief and curiosity, and Danny could only guess at what was going on through her head: what was wrong with her quill? She could clearly see his hand being repeatedly etched with the words he wrote on paper, but why was he showing no sign of pain or disturbance?

_This lady's a creep_, Danny thought.

She frowned, and Danny smirked to himself, watching her failed detention lesson continue.

* * *

"So, we'd better get started on the 1000 pounds of homework we got, or at least I think we got." Sam said. She took out a piece of parchment and a quill & ink, and wrote her name at the top. She looked to Hermione, who was halfway through an essay for God knows what class. "So, what was homework for Potions?"

Hermione looked at Sam. "What, you didn't write it down?"

"Uh, no."

Hermione shook her head jokingly, pulling out a Muggle notebook and turned a few pages, looking for the page with the homework on it. When she found it, she handed it to Sam.

"Thanks, Hermione. Let's see here: a 6-inch paper on any ten uses of dittany. We actually have to measure our papers?"

"Yeah, it was really annoying at first, but once you get used to it, it's quite normal."

Sam groaned. "Alright, I'll measure." She dipped her quill in ink, and brushed off extra drips, and began to write. "10…uses…of…dittany." She looked at Hermione. "So, what are 10 uses of dittany?"

Hermione laughed, and continued writing her own paper, occasionally giving Sam a few hints for her to use in her paper. Hermione still helped Sam with her paper, even after she was finished with all of her homework, and they both realized how much in common they had, aside from Sam being a vegetarian Goth.

After about half an hour, Hermione decided to go down to the library to find something to read, while the others stayed behind and sat around the fireplace, swapping stories of past years at Hogwarts or old ghost fights that were important enough to remember.

* * *

Umbridge continued to stare at the boy, transfixed. No sign of pain, not even a frown. He just sat and wrote, his face showing no emotion.

Danny smiled. He knew he was getting to her, and he loved it. Maybe he could use this as an advantage…

"Professor Umbridge?"

She looked up from his hand, startled. "Yes, child?"

"What exactly does the 'High Inquisitor' get to do?" He asked innocently, his hand never leaving the quill, and the quill never ceasing to stop. _'I must not tell lies.'_

Professor Umbridge looked at Danny with a small smile. "I've been appointed by the Minister of Magic to make sure that the teaching staff here at Hogwarts does what the Ministry approves of."

"Do you get to fire teachers?"

"Well, yes, I do. Why are you so interested in all of this anyway, Mr. Fenton?"

"No reason…"

On the outside, Danny may have seemed like nothing was bothering him, but inside he just wanted to rip the Minister's head off for appointing such an unqualified schoolteacher. According to what he had heard, the Ministry is doing everything they can to turn everyone against Harry. But if the idea of not letting the students be educated magically in Defense Against the Dark Arts was his, then there was probably some mental issue going on in Fudge's head…and to think they all thought that Umbridge's excuse for using textbooks was fake.

In the middle of his mental rant, Danny felt a strange sensation creep up his left arm. He looked at the words, which had not healed back yet, due to Danny pressing hard on the paper out of frustration, and writing too quickly for the cut to heal. But the feeling wasn't coming from the cuts. It felt like he was bringing up an ectoblast, but it didn't at the same time. He quirked an eyebrow at the cuts, seeing the hints of green in his blood, but paying no attention to them.

He felt his eyes go green for a split second, then back to blue. His ghost sense went off, and then very suddenly, a sharp pang hit him right in the center of the back of his head, causing him to bite down hard on his lip to keep quiet. Obviously, this quill wasn't ecto-friendly.

"Professor, can I ask just one more question?"

Umbridge looked up from her desk.

"What would happen if a Muggle got their hands on this quill and used it?"

Umbridge raised an eyebrow. "The same reaction, but what does that have to do with anything—"

"How about a Muggle ghost?"

She sighed. "After a Ministry-approved test with these quills on some odd ghost that called himself 'The Box Ghost', due to the powerful spells placed on the quill, the creature broke out into a cold sweat, and probably would've been destroyed completely, if it weren't for a simple spell that the Head of the Department of Spell Damage at St. Mungo's had cast on the thing."

Danny sighed. "Right. Thank you, Professor."

He hesitantly wrote the next line down on the parchment, now realizing why his arm was feeling a bit strange: the quill was destroying his ghost half little by little, starting with his left hand. Each time he finished a sentence, he'd feel the words being cut into his hand, and he'd feel more of the strange sensation creeping up his arm, becoming more and more painful with each passing second.

_'I must not tell lies.'_

He looked at his watch._ '4:59. She should be letting me leave any second now…'_

And as if she read his mind, she called him up to her desk. He walked up, and showed her his hand when she asked for it.

"Hm, not bad." She said, as she saw the words cut into his hand, drops of blood seeping through his fingers.

She was about to dismiss him, until she saw the faintest bit of green in his blood mixed in with the red. She blinked a few times, convincing herself she was just seeing things, but when the green had not disappeared, she was about to ask him about it until Danny quickly grabbed his hand back and gathered his things, trying as hard as he could without using his left hand. He wished Professor Umbridge a good night and bolted out of her office, immediately sticking his hand out to the wall for support. _'Man, the magic in that quill is really starting to get to me…I got to find somebody—'_

"Danny?"

He looked up. At the corner of the hallway stood Hermione, clutching a book in her hands, her head tilted to one side. When she realized it was him, she ran to him and asked him what was wrong, while helping him stand.

"Umbridge's detention wasn't exactly ghost-friendly. It's destroying my ghost half."

"That sounds a bit familiar. Hold on, I think there's something in this book…"

She flipped through the book she was holding, stopping at a page when she thought she had found something, but then quickly turned when she realized it wasn't there. Danny looked up at the book and saw a familiar insignia.

_'CW. Figures Clockwork's mixed up in this somehow.'_

"Got it. Hold still for a second." She cleared her throat and reread the spell in the book 3 times. "_Firmeza_." (1)

Danny's arm rippled with pain for a few seconds, but almost immediately, the pain was gone, leaving Danny feeling better than before he had gotten into Umbridge's office.

"Thanks, that worked really well. Where'd you get that book, anyways?"

"I was in the library, looking through a pile of books that were on a table nearby, and this one sort of stuck out." She said sheepishly. "I was going to walk away, when a deep voice in my head told me to take it, and that it would help for something in the future, with emphasis on 'future'. So I took it, and here we are."

"I knew it was him." Danny muttered.

"What was that?"

"Nothing." He replied quickly. "So, where is everyone else?"

"They're all being lazy in front of the fire. I don't understand how they can be so relaxed when there's so much going on around here. I mean, on top of all the homework they haven't done, Umbridge isn't teaching us anything, and there's a big war that You-Know-Who's starting."

"Yeah, and not to mention I'm slowly turning evil and Harry's close to becoming possessed." Danny said humorously. "But that's nothing we can't handle."

Hermione chuckled. "Why should that be funny?"

"It's not. But the world looks a little bit brighter when I pretend it's all in my head."

Hermione side smiled before getting back on point. "We need to do something about the whole Umbridge problem. What did she make you do for detention, anyways?"

"Lines. But I had to use some weird quill thing. Anyways, I doubt she's going to teach us anything worth knowing anyways, right? I mean, we're seriously going to have to learn how to do all the spells on our own?"

"Yeah, I guess. Why would Dumbledore allow someone like her to teach here, and in our O.W.L. year, too?"

"Uh, sorry, what's an owl year?"

"O.W.L.s are Ordinary Wizarding Levels. At the end of the year we have to take the O.W.L.s in order to apply for the job we might want when we're older. And if we're going to get any O.W.L.s, we need to do something to learn the spells quicker."

"You said that Harry has most of the spells learned or something. Why don't we just ask him?"

"Because he won't want to do it. He'll probably say some nonsense about him not being able to teach or no one else wanting to learn from him."

"Well, lets ask him anyways." Danny said. When Hermione's face showed nothing but doubt, he continued. "Look, I've failed tests so many times, that's it's become a boring routine. It would be awesome if Harry was able to teach us some magic and stuff."

Hermione doubted that it would work, but after a few minutes of begging and pleading, she agreed to ask Harry to help them out.

* * *

**A/N –** K anyways, still editing. Working on small things. Keep reading :)**  
**


	13. Chapter 13

…—mkay not much to say, just wanna point something out ;; has anyone noticed that the phrase "goin' ghost" makes perfect gramma

Hermione and Danny had just walked into the common room and heard everyone that was surrounded by the fireplace laughing. At least 20 Gryffindors were all facing Tucker, and he was completing the stories that he had started to tell when Danny left for detention. Danny gave Tucker the scary eyes behind his back when no one was looking, but decided to let him finish. You know, let him decide his own fate. Danny stood behind Tucker's chair quietly, wanting to interrupt him at the right moment.

"…And then when Jazz was trying to catch the Skulker in the Fenton Thermos, she slipped and Phantom was stuck in it for 6 HOURS—"

"Boo."

Tucker swerved around, making contact with the ground out of surprise. Danny had a sly smile on his face, letting Tucker know of his impending doom later.

"Hi, Danny! I was just, heh, telling some stories about Phantom, who followed us here all the way from Amity Park! You remember him, right? Heh…"

_'You just love getting yourself stuck in these situations, don'tcha Tuck?'_ Danny thought to himself with a grin (Sam smiled at this). "Yeah, I remember him, it's not like I can forget him, y'know. He was attacked a few days back, don't you remember?"

Tucker laughed nervously, and sat back down in his seat, slouching down so that Danny couldn't pull any tricks on his head. The surrounding students got the hint that the story telling had to come to a halt, and left disappointedly.

Danny took the seat on the couch next to Sam, who was straining to hold her laughter after she had heard all of the stories Tucker had pulled out from the back of his memory. He glared at her playfully, and then glomped her onto her back, brushing a few stray strands of hair away from her face.

Tucker sighed and left the lovebirds. Whatever they were going to decide to do, he didn't want to know…and didn't want to be there for it; too awkward. But, then again, he could slip them a couple of Fainting Fancies or Puking Pastilles while they were kissing…hm…he's going to ask Fred and George for some just in case. They might even give him a discount if he told them what he was up to…

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

_Tuesday_

Professor Umbridge had just walked through the door and was hushing the students and shooing them off to desks. Danny took this opportunity to sit next to Hermione, hoping to get a few notes in and maybe a few whispers about what they had talked about the previous night.

"Wands away, and quills and textbooks out, please." Umbridge said in her sugary-sweet voice. "Turn to page 16 for Chapter 2."

"Psst…Hermione." Danny whispered after Umbridge had passed by. He flicked a note at her, which he thought would be more efficient, unless the Toad got a hold of it…then they were in trouble. She read the note and scribbled back, desperately trying to hide it from Umbridge.

**Hermyoh :scribble: Hermieo :scribble: hey, are we really going to ask Harry to teach us real Defense Against the Dark Arts?**

_Well, I thought it would be a really good idea, but if you're backing out, so am I. I'm not asking Harry by myself. No WAY am I getting into a fight with his hard head._

**So…when are we gunna ask him?**

_I think we should tell everyone else first, and then ask him. That way we have more people who agree with us._

**I guess that makes sense. All right, we need to do it soon. Oh and can you pick me up after detention today? I don't think I can do that spell thing.**

_I'll pick you up if you tell me what she's making you do. I highly doubt that she's making you do just lines._

**It really is just lines, just with an extra, uhm, 'twist'. I'll be fine, just come pick me up. Bring Sam, too, she's going to find out where you're going and will want to come anyways. But don't tell her about detention, I need to tell her myself.**

_All right. We're not done discussing this. And it's 'Hermione' by the way._

Hermione looked at Danny worriedly, but sighed when Danny mouthed "later" and continued copying the completely ridiculous notes that Umbridge had instructed them to right.

—————————————————————————————————————————————————————

"_Firmeza_. You're lucky they shortened the millions of spells that used to be necessary for this kind of thing. I can't understand why you can't just tell me what she's making you do, it's not like she's attacking you in there…is she?"

Danny laughed and stood straight, gripping the windowsill that was straight across from Umbridge's classroom. "No, she's not attacking me. C'mon, Hermione, do you actually think Umbridge would do that? I know she's a total jerk, but honestly, her room is covered in cat-plates. She'd probably be more worried about breaking those than hurting me."

Hermione chuckled. "Cat-plates?"

"Yeah, they're like cat portraits on plates, or whatever." Danny looked around. Something was missing…"Hey Hermione, where's Sam?"

"Oh, right. She told me to tell you that she was going to stop at the library real quick and then come here. I don't know when she'll be back or how she'll find us if we move, so maybe it's best if we just stay put here."

"Nah, Sam's a smart girl, she'll find her way." _'And I want to see the radius on this mind-reading thing.' _He thought quietly to himself.

They began to walk to the common room, slow enough to make sure Sam caught up with them. Heck, at the rate they they were going, at least 20 snails could've passed them. They didn't really have much in common, but that made the whole conversation worth having. They both loved debating, one of the few things that they could've agreed on, and they wasted their time deciding which team was better: Mets or Yankees. For Danny, it was understandable seeing him defend the Yankees ("a.k.a. the best thing that's ever happened to MLB!") But it was a little strange seeing Hermione talking about baseball, because 1) in the magical world, Quidditch was the main sport, and 2) The English don't keep up with baseball facts, or at least Danny had thought so until Hermione started going on and on about how the Mets were the best and that no other team was as cool as they were. Pfft, yeah right.

"Oh yeah, the Mets are WAY better," Danny said in a sarcastic tone, "because if you completely ignore the 26 or so World Series that the Yankees won, they'd actually have a chance in the Subway Series."

"At least the Mets don't show off every second that they get. They have a sense of decency."

"Oh, please. They don't show off because they SUCK! And anyways, the Yankees should be allowed to do anything they want. It's hard not to show off when you can do things that other people can't."

"Yeah? How would you know?" Hermione said. Danny looked at her incredulously, then transformed into Danny Phantom. "Oh, right. BUT the Yankees don't have ghost powers. It shouldn't be that difficult to hide their kind of talent."

"Says the girl who can't help but answer every question she hears." Danny said, with a quick smile as Hermione fake glared.

After a few more facts thrown and laughs had, Danny looked around. Sam was still gone. "Where is that girl?"

Hermione looked around. "Maybe she's back at the common room? Look around. We've only moved about 4 or 5 feet away from where we first started."

Danny looked back and, sure enough, they were just standing on that spot, and Danny had just used that windowsill for support. Hm…maybe he should try that mind-reading thing now…

Danny closed his eyes and thought to Sam, not really sure of what he was doing. It was kind of like tuning into a radio, only this was Sam's head and it wasn't full of cheesy songs about milkshakes and Air Force Ones.

_'Sam? Can you hear me?'_

No response.

Danny sighed in defeat, looking down at his shoes, but snapped up again when he heard a familiar voice from down the hall. He looked up and saw Sam turned the corner, raising an eyebrow at the both of them, wondering how they managed to move so little in a matter of 45 minutes. Debating on baseball teams really is a time killer.

"How is it possible that you guys haven't moved at all since Danny got out of detention?" Sam said curiously, her eyebrow unwillingly raising.

"We moved! A bit, kind of. Well, at least we were talking about something productive!"

"Mhm. What were you talking about?" Sam said, her lips curved and her eyebrow up.

"Uh…baseball. We were sort of debating about the Mets and Yankees. After she lost miserably for favoring the Mets, we realized we hadn't moved, and then you came." Danny said, ending with his charming smile.

Sam smiled. She couldn't resist his charm. But she had to admit, he was a loser for fighting over baseball, no matter how awesome the Yankees were. She shook her head and cleared her throat. "Hermione told me that you two have something to tell me. What happened?"

Danny became serious. "You know how Umbridge's teaching is so horrible that it won't help us in the least bit when we take those big important tests at the end of the year?" She nodded. "Well, me and Hermione are thinking that if we can get someone to teach us how to perform defensive magic behind Umbridge's back, than maybe we'll have a chance to pass, and we won't kill ourselves out there in the real world. Lets face it, ecto weapons won't stop any Death Eaters."

Sam pursed her lips. "You know, that wouldn't be a bad idea. We could make like a secret Defense group, and invite kids from the other houses if they're interested. And not just defense against magic. We should teach them how to fight ghosts, now that some of them are starting to show up here. We need to get Tucker and Ron in on this, too."

"They know already, Hermione told them yesterday (an-only telling that story if i get enough reviews).The thing is, the only person we can think of most definitely won't agree to it."

"Who were you thinking about asking?"

Danny and Hermione looked to each other. "…Harry."

Sam stared at them in disbelief, knowing that Harry would never accept the "job". He was way too stubborn, and he saw himself as a loser who no one liked to talk to. She looked between them and noticed their serious, miffed, faces, and started coming up with counter arguments in her head.

"Guys, this sounds like a good idea, but Harry would never agree to it. You guys don't know of anyone else that might be able to do it? A seventh year maybe?"

"Well, no one in this school has seen the things that Harry has." Hermione started. "He's really the only one that can actually help us deal with any kinds of pressure we might have to face if we actually do get threatened out in the real world, and he's was the top in our class at Defense Against the Dark Arts when the only decent teacher we ever had was here. It's only logical that we ask him to help."

Sam looked from Danny to Hermione, a look of doubt on her face. She probably would've told them to not even try, if it hadn't been for the fact that both of them hit her with the puppy dog pout. The three of them walked back to the common room (a little faster than before, thanks to Sam) thinking of ways to tell Harry what they were planning to do. They needed to ask around to other people, to see if they were interested. The more people backing them up, the better. What could possibly go wrong?

——————————————————————————————————————————————————————

"No."

"But, Harry—"

"I'm not going through with it."

"But you're—"

"We'd all just get in trouble."

"Sam was right, you really are too stubborn."

Hermione sunk into the couch in a seat besides Ron, and glared at the fire. They'd been trying to get Harry to say "yes" to their Defense Group idea, but he really was more stubborn than anyone could've predicted. He really seemed like he would never budge.

"Listen," Harry started, "Umbridge has already got me in detention on Thursday and Friday, and I don't want any more problems with her. Sure she's a slimy piece of filth, but if I get into any more trouble with the Ministry, they will have snapped my wand by next week." Harry finished. He stood up, grabbed his things, and walked towards the boys' dormitories.

_'I'm never going to get them off my back, am I?'_ He thought. _'There must be something I could do…hm. Blackmail? No, that'll never work. Besides, I don't need blackmail.'_

"C'mon, Harry, it's for a good cause." Ron said. "Just think, if you don't help us, she'll have us frolicking through flowers and talking about bunnies after a whole year."

_'Although it does sound like a pretty good idea at the moment.'_

"Alright, I'll do it under one condition." They all leaned forward. "I'll go with your idea, only if Danny…" He looked around the full common room. "If Danny shows them his…uh, 'brother', if you know what I mean."

They all looked towards each other with confused faces, looking towards Danny as he stared at Harry, his eyebrow raised.

"Uh, I don't have a brother. What are you talking about?"

Sam widened her eyes in comprehension. She glared at Harry and punched him in the arm.

"That's blackmail!"

"I call it clever haggling."

Why are you doing this to Danny?! The only family member these people get to see is that one." She pointed at Danny.

"No brother, no deal." Harry said, a smile appearing on his face, letting Sam know what he was trying to do.

"You know, if you didn't want to do it, all you had to do was say so, not ask for Danny to make his brother show himself."

"I said no like 3 times," Harry said, the smile disappearing, "but none of you were listening to—."

"I DON'T HAVE A BROTHER!"

Sam looked at Danny startled. He was looking from Sam to Harry, his face covered in confusion.

Sam sighed. She walked over to Danny and whispered in his ear. His eyes widened and then turned into a scowl towards Harry. "You're cheating."

"And you all are persistent. I can't risk getting into any more trouble with that hag. Let's just leave it at that."

Harry turned away from the group and walked away, feeling the need to end this conversation as quick as possible. He felt horrible about using blackmail against them, but he felt it was the only thing that could have stop them from getting him into their soon-to-be Defense group. There was too much at stake. Besides, he could already hear Angelina yelling about him not being able to attend the Quidditch tryouts for Gryffindor Keeper.

_'Well, one thing's for sure,'_ Harry thought, _'that story Tucker told about Danny was hilarious.'_

Harry smiled, opened the door to the 5th years boys dormitories, and collapsed onto his bed, not even bothering to change into pajamas as he fell into a deep sleep.


	14. Chapter 14

…—ib ssoo i'm gunna try to get this chapter up faster

…—**ib you know what I realized? That they're getting into the DA so quickly. It's only the second week back, if you haven't noticed O.O so yeah. Might not talk about that for a bit after this.  
well, I'm gunna start posting faster! And I'll post the dates when I start and finish! today iss the 7th of decemberr, (damn japanese people!) and hopefully this gets finished around the 14-20th. i have drill practice on saturday from 8-12 and my dad comes afterwards and he bitches at me for writing so much (-.-') so i'll work around that. i also have my JROTC speech to work on, so i'll be alternating between the two :). AND on the 14****th****, I have winter banquet from 7-9, although last year it stretched out to 10:45, so idk how that works. I'M GETTING PROMOTED!!...so yeah.  
Disclaimer: if I owned HP or DP, Danny phantom wouldn't EVER be canceled, and Sirius would never die. Andneitherwouldbellatrix ON WITH THE STORY!!**

**AS OF 12/18-DELAYED DUE TO PREPARATIONS FOR AN EXCUSE TO PROCRASTINATE.**

———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

_Wednesday_

"POTTER!"

Harry was grabbing his books and preparing to leave for his first class. He was walking out of the Great Hall when he heard Angelina Johnson's booming voice yelling for him. He stopped, groaned, and turned around to face her.

"Why do I keep hearing that you have detention with Umbridge on Friday?" She asked, exasperated.

Harry shuffled his feet. "I might've, accidentally…I kind of, sort of…" He sighed. "I gave Umbridge an attitude."

Angelina looked down towards the floor and began clenching and unclenching her hands, as if to stop herself from lunging towards Harry. She wanted the whole team to be there for try-outs, and now her plans were ruined.

"Harry, what did I tell you last week?"

"…You told me not to get into trouble." He sounded like a frightened puppy.

"And what did you do?"

"I told Umbridge—" He looked at Angelina's face. She wasn't settling for excuses. "I got in trouble."

"Find a way to get out of detention. Blackmail her, get her a pretty little Chihuahua for her to play with, I don't care, just do whatever it takes to make it to those try-outs!"

Harry sighed as he watched Angelina storm away, pushing a few scared 1st years out of her way. Harry grabbed the rest of his things, and hurried to catch up with Sam and Hermione, who were already on their way to their first class (Tucker and Ron felt that Divination wasn't really much of an important class anyways, and Danny hadn't spoken a word to Harry since the night before, and left before them). The three stopped at an intersection of the hallway, and split up, Harry and Sam heading for Divination. Hermione bid them good-bye, having no trouble mentioning that she'd be going to Arithmancy with a decent teacher than to Divination with…well, Trelawney.

———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

Tucker had cut class before, due to all of the Muggle ghosts that had attacked Casper High all the time, and it had never bothered him before (not that he had much time to think about it). But he hadn't gone to Divination, ignoring Hermione's "enthusiastic" attempt to make him go. Now that he decided to stay in the dormitory, skipping classes had been bugging him since he had woken up completely. Ron and Tucker were just hanging around the completely empty common room, playing a rousing game of Wizards Chess (it seems that Ron has finally met his match). He and Ron could always come up with some stupid excuse like predicting ultimate doom if they were to attend her class. If anything, that would make her day. But there was something bothering him, a nagging voice that sounded ridiculously like Sam's telling him to go to class or he'd pay for it later. He looked up at Ron, who, although looking down at the chessboard, seemed as though there was something bothering him, too.

Tucker looked over at the clock in the room: it read 8:55. If they left now, they could make it to class only 10 minutes late. He caught Ron looking over to the clock, too, and used this opportunity to his advantage.

"Hey do you think we should go to class?"

"I'd thought you'd never ask."

The both of them rushed up the stairs into the boys' dormitories, got dressed quickly, and ran out of the portrait hole.

———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

Danny had gotten to the North Tower earlier than everyone, even Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil. He sat next to the entrance to the classroom and thought to himself for a while, wondering what could've driven Harry to using blackmail. Harry didn't seem like that kind of person, but the fact that Danny was mistaken was what made him put up his shields quickly.

Then he realized why everyone else was on Harry's side: Harry was desperate.

"Duh! Damn my C average."

He banged his head against the wall, closing his eyes in the process. He did some deep breathing for lack of something better to do, and not too long afterwards he heard giggling and muttering coming from the stairs. Danny quickly turned invisible, not really wanting to be noticed at the moment, and moved to an unreachable spot.

"…And his blue eyes and black hair go so perfectly with his skin tone! On a scale of 1-10, he SO beats Cedric Diggory by like 11 points!"

Lavender had just arrived at the entrance, followed by Parvati, or was it the other way around? Eh, unimportant. Danny glanced down, and noticed that the two girls were apparently deep in conversation about one of the boys at Hogwarts. He thought he might listen in for a bit.

"Yeah, but what about his friend? He's pretty cute, too." The girl he had guessed to be Parvati said with a blush.

Lavender scoffed. "Parvati, you're just saying that because you made out with him at that party. And you don't even remember half of it, because of all that Fire whiskey you had refused to put down! Besides, Tucker isn't half as cute as Danny is."

Danny blushed. They were talking about him and Tucker.

"Yeah, I guess you're right. But if I had to choose between the two, I'd definitely pick Tucker."

"Why?" Lavender asked, puzzled.

"Because I already know he's a good kisser."

The two girls shared a giggle and Parvati started explaining the muscle she had felt on Tucker. After zoning out while they started talking about "parcels", Danny flew up, still invisible and turning himself intangible, sat on the roof of the North Tower. He breathed in the cool air and closed his eyes, transforming into Danny Phantom for a quick flight before class started. He flew around the entire school once, noticing how much bigger the school actually was, not including the greenhouses. Danny looked down and noticed a couple of 3rd year boys looking up and pointing at him as they made their way towards Hagrid's hut. He smiled, waved at the kids, and then drifted back towards the North Tower where he had dropped in front of the entrance to the stairs. When he made it up, he noticed that Lavender and Parvati were still the only ones there, and they hurriedly replaced their not-so-silent conversation with giggles.

Danny sighed, and sat in the same spot he was earlier, and tried as hard as he could to ignore the girls' loud giggle fits.

More loud giggles and a few more awkward stares into space later, Harry and Sam finally showed up, along with Neville Longbottom and some kid Danny didn't know the name of.

Sam smiled at Danny, who couldn't help but smile back as she leaned forward to peck him on the lips. She sat down next to him and twisted her fingers into his sending shivers up and down his spine, and giggled as she saw Lavender glare at her out of jealousy.

Harry, on the other hand, decided to avoid eye contact with the ghost boy at all costs. He _did_ feel guilty about using Danny for blackmail, but he figured once Danny figured out why he was doing it, they'd be okay again.

'_Damn, I forgot, he's the clueless one of the three.'_

Harry sighed and finally turned to Sam and Danny, who mysteriously kept looking deeply at each other, almost as if in communication. Occasionally, Danny would frown and turn towards Harry, but then soften up when Sam whispered a reassuring comment in his ear.

When Divination finally started, Sam took a seat next to Neville, forcing Harry and Danny to sit at a table next to each other. They both glared daggers at her, but took their seats and looked towards the front of the room, still not speaking a word to each other.

Trelawney smiled manically, her eyes being magnified ten times their normal size. "Good morning children! What lovely smiles Jupiter brings onto these precious faces!"

Danny looked around—no one was smiling.

She started rambling about the lesson plan, or another one of Harry's deaths, he wasn't sure, but he knew he wasn't listening. She finally stopped talking, leaving the students to talk about their dreams or something. Danny had failed to listen to what she had said then, too. He stared dimly at the crystal ball, his eyes beginning to droop, when…

BANG!

The door flung open 10 minutes into the class period, revealing two Gryffindor boys; both of them pink in the face and panting heavily.

Ron and Tucker smiled sheepishly then took a seat at the empty table beside Harry and Danny. Danny immediately leaned forward and began talking to Tucker about some recent discovery he had made about the Box Ghost during the class period. Harry and Ron, however, were speaking in hushed tones so that even Danny and Tucker couldn't hear them

"Why would you even think about wanting to expose him?" Ron whispered, "I mean, it's just not like you. If you didn't want to agree to what we were doing, you didn't—."

"Listen," Harry interrupted in a loud whisper, making Danny and Tucker turn to them. They raised their eyebrows, but didn't ask questions. "Listen, Ron, I don't want to lead your group, and unless you want Danny's secret exposed to everyone, I suggest you don't push the subject."

"Harry, you're acting completely mental! I understand that you're a bit desperate, but you're going way too far!" Ron told him, both of their whispers gradually becoming louder.

"I don't know why I did it, but I just did, and we can't change anything anymore, can we?"

"Well you can start by apologizing to him."

"Well maybe you should leave me alone!"

"And maybe you both should shut up before you let something slip!" Danny whispered exasperatedly at them, looking around to see if anyone was looking.

Everyone was.

Harry nodded, his eyes wide. He nodded, obviously not being in any position to argue. Danny glared at Harry, and continued to pretend to listen to Trelawney as she predicted another student's agonizing death.

———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

"Hello, Mr. Fenton. Same as yesterday."

Danny sighed and took the same seat in front of Professor Umbridge for the third time that week. He dropped his bag, and picked up the black quill that he loathed so much. He began to write, and the words began etching into his skin, and the same pain had gone up his arm every time he had finished a line. He made no noises though; no way was he going to give Umbridge the satisfaction of seeing him in pain. Danny just sat there quietly, desperately trying to show no emotion, but failing miserably every time another jolt of pain came up his arm.

To get his mind off of the blasted quill, he began thinking about the Gryffindor Quidditch try-outs that were being held on Friday. While flying around school after detention, he frequently saw Ron coming back from the Quidditch pitch alone, the new Cleansweep his mom had bought him for becoming a prefect slung over his shoulder. He'd sometimes sit in the bleachers invisibly when he had time, watching Ron progress as he threw the Quabble, Quadrule, whatever it was called, into the three hoops at the ends of the pitch. Danny had considered trying out himself, but then thought it over and realized that he hadn't even ridden a broomstick before, and it would be a bit suspicious if he just appeared at the try-outs, flying skills already superb.

Having ghost powers were sometimes a real bummer.

'_Still,'_ Danny thought, _'It IS a nice thought…'_

Danny gave out an inaudible sigh, and brushed the thought away from his mind, only feeling another aching pain in his head and a jolt of pain go up his arm. He winced, looking up at Umbridge to see if she had caught that. She didn't.

'_Ha, I win.'_

Danny side-smiled, and wrote another line, replacing his smile with a stony-faced look.

He began thinking about what was happening with himself and Dark Dan, swallowing hard and visibly tensing. Did he find out about the Wizarding World sometime in the alternate time that was Dan's life? And if not, how did You-Know-Who find out about—

There was no way Danny was going to continue referring to Lord Voldemort as "You-Know-Who."

Danny sighed, choosing to stop thinking about evil plots. He had enough of that at home, and he didn't want to drag more villains into his life. But then again, maybe it was too late for that.

"Alright that's enough for today, Mr. Fenton." Umbridge said suddenly.

Danny stood up and, as best as he could, walked to Umbridge's doily-covered desk.

"Hand." She said.

He stuck out his hand, and the shining, bloody words remained etched into his skin, taking a long time to heal, considering. Once Umbridge gave an approving nod and dismissed him, Danny grabbed his books and rushed out the door, trying hard to greet an impatient Hermione as he stumbled towards the wall, clutching his left hand in pain.

"'Lo, Hermione."

Hermione gasped, her eyes staring at the words etched into his hands. She rushed to attempt to heal the wounds, but when that didn't work out, she healed his whole ghost half instead, leaving his blood dripping through his fingers.

Once she saw Danny was all right, Hermione drew back her fist and punched him in the arm as hard as she could.

"Why didn't you tell me she was doing this?! You have to go to Dumbledore; she's going way too far! If the parents ever found out what that toad was doing, I can only imagine what Dumbledore might say! Honestly, bringing that kind of discipline into Hogwarts, what's _wrong_ with—."

"Hermione, BREATHE!" Danny shouted. He rubbed his probably bruised arm and sighed. "Why would I go to Dumbledore? I hardly know the guy. Besides, I'm not going to give Umbridge the satisfaction of seeing me crumble. I'd rather face Pariah Dark again."

"What?"

"Never mind. Look, Umbridge isn't all that much of a threat to me anyways. I'm perfectly capable of dealing her myself."

"Yeah, that's why you needed me here to rejuvenate your ghost half. Danny, you need to stop playing hero and let someone help you. I didn't say you couldn't handle this," Hermione said before Danny could interrupt, "but that doesn't mean that you couldn't use a bit of assistance. Me and the others, we're here to help you, Danny, and we can't do that if you keep hiding everything that's going on in your life because you don't want to feel like a little kid anymore."

Danny scowled. "I'm not a little kid."

"You're sure acting like it."

"…Am not."

———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

When Hermione and Danny entered through the portrait hole, the common room was almost empty. The only people there were a few 3rd year students chatting in the back about some kid and a dragon, Fred, George, and their test subjects, Ron and Tucker, who were playing a game of Wizard's Chess, and Sam and Harry who were debating about some Muggle band ("_Morbid Anti-Social Youth_ is SO not stupid!").

"Hello." Hermione said tensely.

Ron and Tucker both quickly looked up at Hermione and then indulged themselves into their game again. "'Sup."

She scowled at Danny, who leaned into the seat beside Harry and Sam. He turned to Hermione. "Nothing's up, right Hermione?"

They stared at each other intently, Hermione jerking her head towards the other four and Danny shaking his in disapproval, trying as hard as he could to shield his mind from Sam's prying thoughts.

"Okay, I give up." Sam said, throwing her hands up in the air. "What's wrong with you two?"

Danny looked at Sam. "Nothing. Don't worry about it."

"I would if I were you." Hermione told Sam in a singsong voice.

"Why, is it something bad?" Sam asked.

"No it's nothing bad. Shut up, Hermione." Danny said, glaring at Hermione.

"I would've thought you at least told her, she's your girlfriend!"

"There's nothing to tell!"

"You know perfectly well that there is!"

"IT'S NOT A BIG DEAL, HERMIONE!"

"THEN WHY _NOT_ TELL THEM, DANNY?"

"BECAUSE IT'S NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS!"

"_WILL YOU TWO SHUT UP?" _Ron and Tucker shouted in unison.

Hermione and Danny were now standing no more than a foot away, the both of them glaring daggers at each other. Sam stood up besides Danny and clasped her small hand into his, causing him to look away from Hermione. She pulled Danny away from the group and out of the portrait hole.

Hermione scoffed and started mumbling about Danny being stubborn while hastily sitting down next to Ron, who at that point became so aggravated at a 4th lost match of Wizard's Chess that he threw the pieces of his smashed king onto the floor. Tucker smiled triumphantly.

———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

"Danny, what was Hermione talking about?" Sam asked, her voice full of concern.

Danny avoided her eyes, looking down at his feet and making a horrible attempt at hiding the words on his left hand.

"What are you doing with your hand?" She asked.

"Don't worry about it, it's nothing." Danny said too quickly.

Before he could stop her, she grabbed his left hand and examined the now fading words on the back of his hands. She held in a gasp, and ran her fingers over the new scars, reading the message. _'I must not tell lies.'_

Sam plastered on a brave face. "Did Umbridge do this to you?"

Danny nodded quietly.

"Why didn't you tell me?" She asked, her voice not showing any emotion.

"Because it's nothing to worry about, honestly. I can handle her myself, it's no big deal."

Sam nodded. She pulled her hands back and entered the common room, Danny trailing behind. Without a word, she climbed the stairs to the girls' dormitories and shut the door behind her leaving Danny behind with no one but Harry, Ron, Tucker and Hermione. Fred and George had left after paying each of their subjects their wages.

Hermione stood up roughly, and bade them all a good night, bumping into Danny's shoulder before heading up to the girls' dormitories behind Sam. Danny scowled and rubbed his shoulder, deciding that he, too, was going to get an early start on sleep that day.

Ron watched Danny go up the stairs, a smile creeping onto his face. "Wow, that was interesting. And we've only been here for 2 weeks."

———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

**ALL RIGHT, I know I said up there that this was going to be out by the 20th or something, but I couldn't get it up on time. GEESH, leave me ALONE! XD ;; idk when I'll be starting the next chapter, butt I start as soon as I can. Btw no, I'm not going to bother with writing a Christmas story, seeing as I have NO ideas, but I WILL be writing on Christmas. Pfft, if I take a break, it'd probably last til FEBRUARY. Ha. Yeah. SO read and review or face my doom.  
and while I'm here, merry Christmas, you filthy animal. And a happy new year XD**


	15. Chapter 15

wow

**Mkay so i'm up to FIFTEEN! Yay! Idk wut this is going to be about (as usual). More stuff LATER because NO ONE reads these beginning author's notes ANYWAYS. -12/29/07; 4645 hits.**

Thursday was coming to a close, and still no one had made any motions to fix the problems they were each having. In fact, all of them were completely ignoring one another, with the exception of Harry who was out doing Umbridge's detentions. Hermione sat in front of the fire, finishing up on some homework anxiously looking towards the portrait hole, while Sam and Tucker looked through a scrapbook that they had put together back in the 8th grade. Ron and Danny were out on the Quidditch pitch. Everyone was just desperate to be away from one another.

There was no silent treatment, no fighting, nothing like that, which would've been pretty pleasant compared to the occurring matters. No, instead they were being _painfully polite_.

Well, in all honesty, it was just Danny feuding against everyone else for separate reasons, but Danny didn't feel like bothering to resolve anything until after the weekend. He was already way too stressed (courtesy of the Box Ghost, who had somehow managed to team up with Peeves the Poltergeist during his first two weeks here. Swell).

Not only was Danny freaking out about Harry ("Just because he's being a moron, doesn't mean I'm not going to worry about him going to Umbridge's psycho detentions", he proclaimed to Tucker), but he was already behind on his Transfiguration homework, and he had skipped writing his Potions essay (which was due next Monday) to ask Ron to teach him how to fly on a broomstick and play Quidditch.

The whole concept of flying wasn't too hard, in Danny's opinion. Then again, he already had a year of experience, except as Phantom. _Phantom_ was used to flying, not that Danny ever realized he was flying anyways. As Phantom, he had gotten so used to flying, he hardly noticed when he went up in the air.

_Fenton_, on the other hand, had no idea what flying was like, and even though Danny Fenton and Danny Phantom were one in the same, it was…oddly different. Danny Phantom had no problem flying. But Danny Fenton was…_nervous_.

Danny looked down at the broom on the floor, then to Ron, incredulously. "…Up?"

"No, you have to say it like you mean it. Don't be scared, I mean you must be used to this, right?" Ron said.

"Yeah, but it's a different feeling when you're a ghost. Whatever." He said, waving a hand. He stared at the broom again. "Up."

The broom lifted slightly, teasing Danny. If it had a face, it'd probably smirk. Danny took a deep breath. "Up."

The broom soared up to his hand, calmly shaking with anxiety to get up into the air. Danny smiled a big cheesy smile, his nerves calming down when he felt the broomstick under his palm. He looked towards Ron, who was red in the face and trying not to laugh.

"Shut up." said Danny, shoving Ron.

"Alright, alright, lets keep going. Pull your leg over the broom ("Duh"), and keep a firm grip on the broomstick, otherwise you'll fall off."

Danny slung his leg over and gripped tightly, his smile spreading. "Mkay what's next?"

"Now you just kick off—Danny, wait!"

Without another word, Danny was up in the air, leaning forward as much as possible, going as fast as the school brooms would allow.

It was amazing. The wind was blowing in his _human_ face, through his _human_ hair, and he was having the time of his life. It was better than flying as a ghost…more _carefree_. He leaned forward, adding speed to the broom, glad that for once, he was flying at ridiculously fast speeds for reasons other than ghosts or a missed curfew.

Oh yes, he was SO trying out for the Quidditch Team.

Danny looked around for Ron, who was hauling a biggish suitcase-looking thing towards the middle aof the field. Ron looked around for Danny, and asked him to come and help him with the thing; he probably wouldn't have needed it if it weren't for the fact that it wouldn't stop shaking. Danny frowned and soared downwards, touching down on a spot next to the redheaded boy.

"What is that?" Danny asked, eyeing the trunk suspiciously.

"It's the Quidditch equipment," said Ron. "You _are_ trying out for the team, aren't you?"

"Well, I _want_ to, but wouldn't it be a bit weird if the new kid is trying out for a sport he didn't even know existed before summer?"

"Well, nobody on the team except for Harry, Fred and George know about that, and it's not like they're going to tell anybody." Ron said reassuringly.

"No? I wouldn't find it hard to believe if Harry was off telling them right now." Danny shot back, a frown forming. "He's already threatening to reveal a secret that I've worked damn hard to keep for a while. A secret that wouldn't help me in the long run if people knew about it."

"He's just being a prat. Harry's…he's not himself for some reason, reasons known only to him. He's been acting weird since the end of last year. I can't really blame him. The guy who killed his parents is alive again."

Danny's face softened. "Yeah, I guess you're right. But that still doesn't give him a reason to take it out on my secrets. I'm already having trouble with all things ghostly as it is. Magic is just _so much more complicated_ than I thought it would be."

Ron laughed. "Oh it gets worse, trust me. But at least nothing _that_ bad has happened yet."

"Oh yeah, that makes me feel a whole lot better."

--LINE--

**This is mainly the reason why this chapter took so long. As I'm writing this, I have NO IDEA what I'm gunna put next. nya. I apologize in advance if the chapter gets bad towards the end.**

--LINE--

'_I must not tell lies.'_

The words etched into the skin of Harry's hand for about the 27th time that evening, not that he was counting or anything. It felt like it was the millionth time; the hand on his skin was red and raw, and as his hand healed, it felt like fiery toothpicks were jabbing him. Violently. It had taken a considerably long time for the words to heal, and Harry wondered if, at some point, they'd even go away at all.

He sat quietly, making it seem as though he was doing nothing more than finishing up some homework, but on the inside, Harry was screaming at the top of his lungs for some relief, maybe a tub of ice to dunk his hand into. Not a sound escaped his lips, but he couldn't hold back the pained twitches his left hand took, or the strange long breaths he would take.

Umbridge looked up for a third time that night, the corners of her mouth quirking upwards when she heard the boy let out another long breath of air. Yes, her quill was working perfectly fine.

--LINE--

"Alright, so, exactly _how _much do you know about Quidditch?"

Ron stood next to Harry, mindlessly throwing around the big red ball that Danny learned was called the "Quaffle". Danny couldn't hold back a laugh. Why would someone in his or her right minds call a big red ball a Quaffle?

"Well, I remember Señor Hardhead telling me that there were 7 people on a team, and three of them chase around balls, and two other guys beat people up. That's all I remember. It's all a vague blur, so I'm probably miserably wrong." Danny finished.

Ron ears turned red and he burst out laughing.

"Hey, shut up, you've had forever to know all of this stuff, I'm just starting with everything." Danny said. "Now teach!"

"Alright, there are 7 players on a team. Three of them are Chasers. The Chasers' job is to pass around the Quaffle and to throw them into the hoops on the opposing team's side. The highest hoop is worth 10 points, while the bottom two are worth 5. Next: the Beaters. They use these bats," Ron handed Danny a bat from the trunk, "and hit Bludgers, the shaking balls in the trunk." Ron pointed to the crazy moving balls. "They do whatever they can to stop the other team from scoring, or to stop the opposing Seeker to find the Snitch."

"What's the—."

"The Seeker is the guy who flies around looking for the golden Snitch. This player is crucial to the game, because unless the Seekers catch the Snitch, the game can't end. Once the Seeker catches the Snitch, the game is over, and their team gets an additional 150 points."

Danny sighed sarcastically. "Wow, that's a lot to take in. Let me shake it off with a bit of flying!"

"Dammit Danny!"

Danny kicked off of the floor and soared over the Quidditch pitch, a smile growing on his face.

--LINE--

In the stands, a blonde, greasy-haired kid with a shining Prefect's badge watched in amazement and jealousy at a boy flying just over the highest hoop of the Quidditch pitch.

--LINE--

**Before anything else: **

**HOLY SHIT THE GIANTS WON THE SUPERBOWL OMG WTF NO WAY AAAHH!! GO GIANTS, NIGGGAAAA!! W000000T NY FTW YYYEAHHHH WE ROCK YOU DON'T FUCK THE PATRIOTS! 18-**_**1**_**!!**

**Mkay, excuse that, I got a New York love for the Giants, y'know? Now for the reall thinggg: OMG THIS IS FREAKING SHORT. But hear me out, alrighttt? DON'T KEEL MEE!! I was writing this and I was all OMG they've been waiting too long, it's been a month already. I have to admit I was procrastinating like crazy, but that was only because I was all NNYYAA about writing because I was all OMG WTF WRITER'S BLOCK! And it was all…bad. Very, very bad. This is only short because I wanted to get SOMETHING out for you guys so you wouldn't have to keep waiting. I know where this is going, so don't worry: I'll probably get a chapter out SOONER. Kay? Kay. Don't maul me, and review. w000000t.**

**Peace out, homeskillets.**


	16. Chapter 16

wow

**Here's chapter 16…ish. :) lala review if you'd like. I know I pissed some of you off for the delay in the last chapter (don't deny it, you know it's true!!), and hopefully this'll make up for it **

--LINE--

'_I must not tell lies.'_

Again, the words etched into Harry's skin, and again, they took a longer time to fade out. Luckily, Umbridge had placed a big hourglass on his table, so he was able to see how much longer he would be stuck with this…_painful_ detention.

The sand was almost completely on the bottom half of the hourglass now. Another minute or so, and the toad would let him off the hook. Of course, the second he stepped in, Hermione would be attacking him with some remedy. He was pretty sure that these detentions were the reason she and Danny were fighting yesterday, seeing as how the both of them had been meeting up after the detentions and walking together to the common room. Umbridge was probably gave Danny the same detentions as Harry, there was no doubt about that, but the only thing that Harry wondered about was _why_ Hermione was meeting Danny after his detentions. The direction of the library, as far as Harry knew, never passed Umbridge's room, so what was the point of walking all the way to her classroom and then back?

"Come here," she finally said.

Harry glanced at the large hourglass, and saw that the sand from the top dropped to the lower half in a speed that he felt took hours. He walked over to her desk and she grabbed his hand.

When he looked at the cuts on his hand for the first time, his eyes widened when he realized how deep the cuts had become. Umbridge was inspecting his hand closely, and Harry had to bite back a gasp when she threw his hand back to him. She gave an accepting nod before dismissing him from her office.

Harry walked back to the desk, and was about to walk out of the room, when he remembered his conversation with Angelina the day before.

"Um, Professor? Before I leave, I wanted to ask you something…a favor…I guess…"

She looked up and narrowed her eyes at him. "Yes?"

"Well, uh, I'm on the Gryffindor Quidditch team, and tomorrow we're holding tryouts for new members. I was wondering if…well if you could let me miss detention for it, and I'll make it up."

Umbridge's eyes gleamed and her mouth formed something Harry thought was supposed to be a smile. "Oh no, we can't have that. No, you'll come here tomorrow and you'll take your detention. I think that'll show you not to spread those lies around the school."

"They aren't—," Harry started, but decided against it. Instead, he said in what could be called a polite voice, "Yes professor."

Harry turned away from Professor Umbridge and walked out, slamming the door behind him.

--LINE--

Sam and Tucker were looking at scrapbooks by the fire, the both of them laughing at some dumb picture of Danny in a giant chipmunk suit. Tucker chanced a glance at Sam; she was smiling, but the smile never reached her eyes. He could see hurt…but what had Danny done?

It had to do with Umbridge's detentions, he knew that, but Danny told him that all she was making him do was lines, and how can she possibly make writing the same line over and over again worse than it already is?

Trying to get Sam to spit it out was no good; she'd probably beat him up again. So all he had to do was ask Danny for the whole story. But Danny had refused to tell him the first time. All he had mentioned to Tucker that seemed suspicious was that Umbridge's detentions were psycho, and he refused to elaborate. Why would he tell him now?

'_Because with my persistence, anything can happen…besides, I'm too fly to ignore for more than a couple of minutes. This should be easy.'_

--LINE--

"_Gettare…_ouch!" **(1) **Ron had been jinxing the Quaffle to fly towards him for hours, but all he kept doing was getting hit in the face with it. He could swear there was a big bruise starting to form just under his eye.

Danny on the other hand, was just being foolish and flying in loop-de-loops all over the place.

"Maybe you should _catch_ the Quaffle when you get it to fly at you."

"Maybe you should come back up here and practice throwing it again!" Ron insisted.

"But I just wanna fly!" Danny yelled back. "And besides, you and I both know that my aim is perfectly fine."

Ron sighed and jinxed the Quaffle again. And again, it smacked him in the face, earning him a loud chuckle from Danny, and a larger bruise forming under his eye.

"Danny, at least get down here and help me practice!"

"Alright, alright"

Danny flew down to the middle of the field and picked up the Quaffle. He tossed it in the air a couple of times, then threw it to Ron at a difficult angle, aiming for the very bottom of the hoop.

Ron flew towards it and kicked as hard as he could, sending the Quaffle flying all the way to the other goal posts.

--LINE--

Harry was subconsciously walking back to the common room, wrapping a scarf around his hand to stop the bleeding. The cuts weren't as bad as they were back in Umbridge's room, but they were still bleeding like mad. Every time he tried to remove the scarf, pain shot up and down his arm. The scarf had already become red and bloody, and he couldn't reach his wand to clean up the drips of blood he was dropping on his way up and down the stairs.

He never actually realized where he was, and more than once he had tripped over his own two feet from lack of concentration. And when he muttered the password and the door swung open, his feet let him in, and he only came back to his senses when he heard a shrill "Harry!" coming from the person that ran in front of him.

Hermione was holding a bowl of some weird-colored liquid and dragged Harry into one of the chairs around the fire. She put the bowl down on the arm of the chair and examined the bloody scarf wrapped around his hand.

"She's not going to get away with this." Hermione said fiercely.

Harry smiled weakly at Hermione before she dipped his hand slowly into the liquid. "Thanks, Hermione."

"Don't mention it, at least you actually let me help. It's essence of murtlap." She said before she slumped down next to Sam.

"So this was what the argument with Danny was about then? Umbridge's detentions?"

Sam looked up from the scrapbooks to Harry and Hermione. "She did the same thing to you? With the weird cuts?"

"Yeah," Harry replied, "They probably wouldn't be so bad if I hadn't pressed down so hard on the paper on the first line."

"She can't do this to you and Danny," Hermione growled, "It's completely barbaric."

"Yeah, but it would just be a waste of time trying to say something." Sam said, "once Fudge hears about it, he'll send out another decree, and it'll just make everything worse."

They all sighed, slouching lower in their seats…well, all except for Tucker, who was still uninformed of, well, everything.

"What are you all talking about?" he asked suddenly.

--LINE--

"Ron, this is your thirtieth save, can we go back inside now?!" Danny shouted, his hand on his cheek.

"No! I'm still practicing!"

"But you're already good! The only thing you need to work on is confidence!"

"SHUT UP AND THROW THE QUAFFLE!" Ron shouted.

Danny threw the Quaffle roughly towards Ron. "Thank you…OUCH, NOT AT MY FACE! Alright, fine, lets go back to the common room, Harry should be back by now."

"Oh, how pleasant."

--LINE--

Tucker was sitting (pissed off) on the couch, staring at Hermione as she explained the whole story behind Umbridge and her detentions. But the second that she mentioned something about Danny's ghost half being affected, both Sam and Harry sharply turned their head towards her and listened to the effects the quill had.

"I read about them the first day Danny went into his detentions." She said. "In the book, it said that a quill taken from a feather of a Thunderbird **(2)** would be cursed, using the writer's blood for ink. When the Ministry first got the quill, they tested it out on different kinds of beings, like humans, obviously, centaurs, and a couple of others, including a Muggle ghost who was shouting about boxes all the time (Sam and Tucker sniggered). But that ghost was the only one that almost di—"

"Wait a minute, what's so special about a Thunderbird?" asked Tucker before she could finish.

"They're really rare, and there's only two people on record to have seen one and survived." Hermione replied. The Thunderbird can call on the lightning, thunder and rain—"

"How surprising."

"—so whenever a person gets too close, they get struck by lightning and killed. The Thunderbird is a very shy creature, and can lose control of its abilities if it gets scared."

"So how the _hell_ did the Ministry manage to get one of those quills?" Sam asked.

"I don't know," Hermione replied, "I'm still amazed that the Ministry is in favor of these things. They almost killed Danny—" She gasped and held her hand up to her mouth. _'Oops, too much information.'_

"What?!" Sam shouted.

"Nothing, it's not in my place to tell you—"

"I don't care, tell me what you know!" Sam said threateningly.

"Look, if Danny didn't want to tell you, then that's his problem, I told him I wouldn't say anything."

"Just tell me you insane psycho freak!" Sam shouted instinctively, pulling her wand out of her pocket.

"You're not really going to try that are you?" Hermione said, grabbing her own wand from her pocket.

Sam sighed, "No, you're right, when it comes to magic, you've got me beat." Sam bent down and grabbed a small rod from her backpack, which instantly turned into a Fenton Baton **(3)**. "But I bet you're real crap at martial arts."

Ignoring Tucker's loud warnings, the loud crash as the bowl full of the essence of murtlap fell to the floor when Harry stood up, and the other staring kids in the common room, Sam began to twirl the baton, and Hermione stood in a better stance.

At that moment, Danny and Ron had just walked in, Ron explaining to Danny about Hagrid and blast-ended skrewts.

"…And by the end of the year, only one of them survived, and it was a really ugly-looking thing too—blimey, what's going on in here?"

The two girls looked over, lowered their weapons, and Hermione sat down, crossing her arms. Sam, however, grabbed Danny and Tucker by their arms and dragged them to the boys' dormitories.

Harry sat down again, fixing the bowl that he had dropped in attempt to stop the girls from overreacting. He wasn't exactly sure whose side to take in _this_ argument, if it could be considered an argument at all. It was just Sam and Hermione fighting for something Danny didn't tell Sam himself.

'_Danny and Sam have the biggest tempers I've ever seen.'_ Harry thought to himself.

--LINE--

"What the hell, Danny?" Sam shouted, "Why didn't you tell us about that stupid quill?"

Danny looked pale in the face. "Because, I told you it was nothing I couldn't handle myself."

"Dude, you could have died if it hadn't been for Hermione." Tucker retorted.

"What do you mean? What did she tell you?"

"I figured it out while she was explaining the effects of the quill; your ghost half was deteriorating inside of you. If it hadn't been for Hermione, you probably wouldn't have lasted five minutes alone"

"And besides," San started, "we're your best friends, and if you decide to keep everything to yourself, how are we supposed to help you when you need it?"

Danny sighed and took a seat on his bed, covering his eyes with his hand, feeling them change to green out of frustration, and then so unexpectedly, they turned red, and visions and memories that weren't his started flowing into his mind.

"Danny…?"

Danny quickly looked straight up at the source of the sound. He recognized the voice, but couldn't place who it belonged to…

"Danny, c'mon…fight it…"

The voice was very familiar, no doubt about that, but when he tried to bring back memories, all he wanted to do was kill them…to stop the voice from defeating him for a reason he desperately couldn't remember…

Then he remembered: an explosion, the sound of anguished screams as a young boy tried to save his family from a horrible death…and a spectator, watching the boy try to fight back, his plans being ruined by a meddling Master of Time…

He felt someone shaking his shoulders. "Danny! Don't give in; you've done this before! Tucker, he's not changing back!"

The panicked voices…he heard them that fateful day when his future reign of terror was torn apart by that idiot boy and his friends…His eyes gleamed a darker red, and his head filled with thoughts that weren't his own, and felt words coming out of his mouth that he wasn't aware of speaking.

"_The kid's getting stronger everyday, and now that he's got a wand, you're basically screwed."_

"_SILENCE! Crucio!" A cold voice shouted at him, sending a curse flying towards Danny's way, but the curse soared right threw him._

_Danny felt a smile playing on his lips. "Do you want to try that again, 'My Lord'?" he said, rolling his eyes, "Or would you like me to show you some real pain?"_

_Voldemort paused and ignored the comment while Danny endured sharp retorts coming from the loyal Death Eaters surrounding them._

Danny snapped back to normal, his eyes once again a piercing blue. His head was aching, and he felt as though he had just ran around all of Hogwarts forty times. Sam was at his side, while Tucker, Danny had noticed, had just left the room to find some help.

"Oi, get the number of the bus that hit me." Danny said.

Sam smiled tremulously. "Why do you choose now of all times to make a joke?"

"Because I don't want to think about what I just saw." He said, looking at Sam worriedly.

Sam furrowed her eyebrows. "What do you mean?"

"I saw You-Know—I mean I saw Voldemort in a room with these guys in masks, and I was…threatening him? But it couldn't have actually been me, I've been here the whole time…and plus, it wasn't my voice, it sounded a lot more like…like…"

"Danny, what's wrong? Who did it sound like?"

"It sounded like Dan."

--LINE--

**1-new spell guess ze language, you get rewarded **

**2-made it up. Thunderbirds are cool. :)**

**3-Fenton baton is NOT like a marching band baton thing, more like a cool rod thing, but idk what it's called, so whateverrr**

**Don't kill me. I tried to make this longer, and I couldn't come up with anything else. If you think this chapter sucks and it took too long to come out, and if you'd like to come around, pick up a couple of sticks and beat me with them, eh, I wouldn't blame you. Ssoo yeah I'll try not to delay as much as this one (a promise that I don't usually keep, but I make a good effort!). Reason for delay? I was writing this while reading fourteen million different fanfictions at the same time, and I have drill practice 'til 6. So don't blame me, blame the patriot battalion and patriot pride!**

**K. Peace out homeskillets.**

**OH YEAH ONE MORE THING: I noticed in chapter…6? I think, that I said Neville was the one who gave Harry the gillyweed. In the book, it was dobby, but I decided to take the movie's idea of Neville giving it to him because of his interest in herbology. :)**


	17. Chapter 17

wow

_**ALI PHANTOM**_

_**She rocks.**_

**K so I'm sorry for not updating for a while, it's just that while I was typing **_**this**_** up, of all times, PARENT TEACHER CONFERENCES came 'round the corner. You can guess one reason this took so long. I would've had it up by the 12th of April, but I didn't get the chance to use the computer ALL DAY because of brigade (drill team). And I was sore. All day. Cus of PT the day before (the freaking LET1s that were picked for platoon leader & sgt were assholes on PT day.) and it didn't help that I was standing up during most of my security shift at brigade XD and my voice is gone from all the cheering (especially when they announced Armed Ex. Crapping bricks by then lol) but I'll get to all the IMPORTANT details later. On with the chapter!! **

**Oh, and if it's short, it's cus I'm really really tired XDD**

--LINE--

"What?" Sam gasped, "What do you mean it was Dan? I thought you said Clockwork had him locked up!"

"I thought so too. Maybe something's wrong with Clockwork? It's not like him to ignore something like this."

Danny's hands reached for his head, only after realizing he found his way to the floor, and tried to sit up without spewing the contents of his dinner all over Sam.

"Well, what were they saying?" Sam asked after helping Danny up. "Was it bad?"

"I'm not sure, I only heard a couple of seconds of the conversation. But from what I could hear, Voldemort is scared of Dan. When Voldemort sent a curse flying towards him, he just went intangible and it went right through him…"

"Maybe it wasn't real?" Sam said hopefully, "I mean c'mon, how much of a chance does You-Know—I mean Voldemort have against Clockwork, master of time? And if the curse went _through_ Dan, then Voldemort can't hurt ghosts when they're intangible."

For a moment, the two were silent, speechless.

Sam looked over at Danny, who looked around the room as if he just noticed they were alone. He looked back to her, his face filled with emotion, and just as he took in air to say something, the door banged open, revealing Tucker followed by Hermione, Ron and Harry.

_Dammit_, Danny thought.

"What happened to you?" Hermione asked, "You look horrible."

"Thanks, that's just what I need to hear," Danny said sarcastically. "I don't know what happened. One minute me, Sam and Tucker were arguing, the next I'm in a room full of Death Eaters watching Dark Dan talking—or threatening, really—Voldemort."

"What do you mean, threatening Voldemort?" Harry asked, "No witch or wizard knows where he is."

"Yeah, no witch or wizard." Danny repeated, "But you seem to forget that the Wizarding world isn't the only other world apart from the Muggles."

"Well, what else is there?"

"The Ghost Zone," Danny said exasperatedly. "Muggle ghosts, no matter what you people call them, can't really be classified as Muggles. They—we—do things Muggles couldn't even imagine up until the ghosts in Amity Park started becoming more malevolent."

"And if Clockwork knows about the Wizarding world, which I'm sure he does, then so does the Ghost Council, and probably the rest of the ghosts, as well," said Tucker.

"So all we have to do is get to clockwork somehow…is that possible while we're here?" Danny asked, turning to his techno-geek friend.

"Yep. I managed to get a hold of a lot of your parents' stuff, including the Fenton Bazooka. The only problem would probably be getting back, but if we manage to find Clockwork, he could help us out."

"So all we have to do is make sure we don't get caught," said Danny.

"Or we could be completely off track and none of this could be happening," said Sam in a dispirited voice. "Clockwork could be completely fine, and nothing could be happening yet."

Danny rolled his eyes, "Thanks for keeping our hopes up, Sam, you're really helping the mood."

"I'm just being realistic, Danny. Do you honestly think that Voldemort stands a chance against Clockwork?" Sam said, rolling her eyes back. "And besides, he would've known beforehand if some kind of danger was coming, and would've warned us the second he found out. The chances of any danger at the moment are low."

"But if there are still chances, we can't risk it," said Danny. "We have to find out if this is happening now, and if it isn't Clockwork can tell us whether or not something _will_ happen. And besides, he can't always warn us about stuff, we usually have to find out most things on our own, Clockwork wouldn't tell us if there was something wrong."

"But Danny—"

"WHAT? Why do you keep trying to disagree with me?" Danny shouted, his eyes flashing from blue to green.

When Sam and Danny finally stopped glaring at each other, they noticed a large dresser was placed in front of the door, a lock had clicked, and Ron and Tucker were both leaning against the dresser, wands and small ectoguns (while not harmful to humans, to Danny it would probably feel like rubber bands were hitting his skin) drawn out.

Danny sighed, "Tuck, what are you doing?"

"Lockdown. Ron and I are sick of you guys fighting, mainly you, Danny. Haven't you noticed all conflicts revolve around you?"

Danny looked to each of the other occupants of the room, then to Tucker. "Yeah, but I didn't do anything."

"We don't care whose fault it is," said Ron. "You're going to sit in this room until all problems are resolved. You've only been fighting for about 3 days, and we're already sick of it."

"And to start off," Tucker stated pointedly, "Sam and Danny get to go first. Ding, ding, let the games begin."

Sam and Danny looked at each other, both of their faces gradually turning a dark red. Rather than talk out loud, though, Danny decided on a mental approach.

'_Sam, I'm sorry.'_

Sam blinked and shook her head. It took her a moment to realize that he was talking to her via…mind waves…or whatever.

'_Why did you keep something that big a secret from me?'_ She thought back, _'You could've just told me. It's know like I would've freaked out or something.'_ Danny raised an eyebrow and smirked. _'Alright, I would've freaked out a little.'_ This time, both of his eyebrows went up. _'Alright, alright, I would've freaked out a lot! But you can't blame me! Umbridge was torturing you!'_

'_I know,'_ Danny finally responded. _'I just didn't want you to worry yourself, it breaks my heard when I have to see you worry.'_

'_Aw, how climactic,'_ Sam teased, _'but you're still not off the hook for this.'_

They both shared a small, blush-inducing laugh, their foreheads meeting. For a couple of seconds, Danny's eyebrows were scrunched together, his eyes staring hungrily at her lips, obviously having a great internal battle about something while blocking out Sam's prying thoughts and forgetting about the other 4 people in the room. He looked around the room once, and shrugged.

"To hell with it," he muttered.

And unexpectedly to all of the room's occupants, Danny crashed his lips into Sam's, her eyes wide with surprise before she closed them and responded with such enthusiasm that she pushed him onto the closest unoccupied bed: Harry's.

Ron, Tucker, Hermione and Harry (who was building up a complaint about them playing tonsil-hockey on his bed) stood nonplussed, staring anywhere except the bed where all they heard were the creaks of the bed springs. As they didn't have mind-reading powers (or whatever it could be classified as), all they saw were Danny and Sam's changing facial expressions, the blushed that crept up onto their cheeks, and that exciting end to a completely nonverbal argument.

Tucker chuckled silently and closed his eyes. This was not going as planned.

"I told you we shouldn't have started with those two," he told Ron, whose ears went red. "Damn, someone get me a crowbar!"

--LINE--

**SHORT SHORT SHORT CHAPTERR! ;9**

**But that's cus my shift key isn't working, and the last time I updated was the 10th of march. We can't have that, can we/ no we can't. HEY LOOK AT MY SHIFT KEY NOT WORKING 8points towards the 8 and the slash and the stupid sign right after the word 'chapter'8. DON'T WORRY though, I have almost all of chapter 18 planned out in my head, and it should be coming out very very soon, k/**

**Review it por favor XD**

**Damn shift key.**


	18. Chapter 18

Friday

_Friday_

Harry grudgingly made his way towards Umbridge's office. After an exceptionally loud conversation with Angelina Johnson moments before, he felt worse than he had all day. He woke up well enough, but as the day progressed, things were looking down on Harry.

And to make it worse, Danny and Sam lost a total of 20 points from Gryffindor for not paying attention and for making googly eyes at each other. Harry had not known Danny and Sam for a long time, but when he met them, they definitely seemed made for each other. They did not, however, seem to be the type of couple that got so caught up into each other that everyone else around them seemed to not be there.

So here was Harry, sitting on a frilly pink chair slicing his hand open with an evil quill while others were out enjoying themselves, watching or participating in the Quidditch tryouts.

'_This is so not fair,' _he thought.

--LINE--

Ron and Danny were walking down to the Quidditch pitch, Ron looking slightly green, his Cleansweep over his shoulder, and Danny looking confident clutching a Comet 290, courtesy of his parents after he wrote them a long, heartfelt letter about how his school year was going, how his classes were, and how he really _really _wanted to try out for the Quidditch team, but lacked a broom.

"I shouldn't be here," said Ron, shaking his head at the sight of all the others trying out.

"Shut up, dude," said Danny encouragingly. "You'll do fine, you were great yesterday when we were practicing, why should this be any different?"

"Fred and George are going to take the mickey out of me for this, I know it."

And soon enough, the second the twins got sight of Ron and Danny, they walked straight through the crowd towards them (Ron's ears turned red).

"Well, what do we have here, my dear brother," Fred said to George, his hands in his pocket.

"It seems that Ickle Ronniekins has decided to try out for the Quidditch team."

"Hey, shut up you two," said Danny defensively. "He plays great."

"Oh really?"

"Yeah, really," Danny retorted. "Shouldn't you be over there with Angelina? She looks like she's about to scream again."

Fred and George turned around and paled, running back towards the overstressed captain. Danny chuckled as Angelina got the best of them; from what he had heard, only a fair few could get Fred and George in line.

"Thanks, mate," said Ron appreciatively, while some color drained back into his face, though not much.

"No problem, just do me a favor and show them how great you can—"

Danny stopped walking. There were two familiar figures walking towards them. Dash, who was walking towards them with a Comet 140, and beside him a small figure carrying what looked like a brand new broom, a Nimbus by the looks of it, and her hair pulled back into a ponytail; it was Sam.

"Hey guys," said Dash, walking up to them. "I didn't know you were trying out."

"Likewise," said Danny distractedly. He turned to Sam. "Since when are you trying out?"

She smiled, "Since I heard Angelina telling Harry about the tryouts. My parents told me to try out for the team before we left. She said it'd get my mind off of 'illicit activities.' Basically, she doesn't want me talking to you or Harry, because she knows the secret and because Harry's the face of evil according to the _Prophet_."

"So for once, it looks like your mom is supporting something you enjoy?" he said, pointing to her outfit and broomstick. "It looks like you've done this before."

"Yeah, well, they'd rather see me playing Quidditch than being caught in some kind of bad newspaper article. But I'm not complaining because I was thinking of joining the team before they told me—"

"If you're trying out, come here, the rest of you get to the bleachers!" Angelina's booming voice said.

Immediately, crowd formed in front of Angelina, and the bleachers started filling themselves up. When everyone got settled, there were a fair few people sitting on the sidelines, and about 30 people clutching broomsticks, looking hopeful.

Angelina first split them up into groups: Chasers on the right, Keepers on the left. There were about 7 or 8 students on the Chaser side, and on the Keeper side there about 5: Ron, Dash, two fourth year girls, and a third year that looked like he was mad at the world.

The Chasers went first. Angelina played as Keeper for the time being, and called "next" after either a player failed miserably or did very well. There were two first years that didn't even know how to make it off the ground, a second year that crashed into Angelina after losing control of the broomstick, and a fourth year that was good at flying but had horrible aim.

Then it was Danny's turn. He flew up into the air with ease and after Angelina gave him the signal to start, he began throwing the Quaffle towards the goals that Angelina was doing an extremely good job of keeping safe, and dodging the Bludger that Fred and George were told to hit back and forth as a distraction. Out of the 20 shots he took, he scored a total of 17.

After Danny, a tall, muscular 7th year was up. He had good aim, but was frightfully stupid, and had the attention span of a flobberworm. Angelina kicked him off the pitch before he could embarrass himself further.

Next, and last, was Sam. Danny watched her as she gracefully flew up into the sky, positioning herself right in front of the middle post. When Angelina signaled her, she threw the Quaffle to the side post, causing Angelina to almost fall off her broom. Sam was quick and speedy, and she aimed well. The Bludgers that were being passed from Fred to George were missing her by quite a distance, and she smirked when Fred's Bludger intended for Sam's broomstick handle hit George instead. She didn't miss a single shot.

Angelina looked positively ecstatic after Sam's tryout. She basically clicked her heels when she touched down onto the ground and looked at Sam as though she was the greatest thing that had ever set foot in Hogwarts.

Next up were the Keepers. Danny had hoped that during the Keeper tryouts he'd have someone to talk to (Sam) but Angelina had picked her to play Chaser "for the time being", so he was basically stuck with Dash, who was up first, and a nervous Ron, who was last, and unable to speak.

Dash confidently walked out onto the pitch and flew to the goal posts. But when it came to actually _saving_ the goals, he was absolutely horrible, and flew in circles around the hoops, looking as though he was really trying, save for the smirk on his face, identical to the one he used to give Danny right before beating him to a pulp (two boys were sitting at the bleachers, laughing their butts off, counting off coins and putting them into a separate bag labeled 'Dash').

He touched back down onto the ground after an enraged Angelina yelled at him for being stupid during the tryouts, her blood pressure probably increasing to a dangerously high level. Dash just smiled stupidly and walked to the bleachers, collecting money from his comrades.

Danny chuckled to himself silently as he watched the others take their turn. One of the fourth year girls was pretty good, but she kept looking at her watch after her turn, muttering to her friend about the Charms club meeting that she was going to miss if she stayed much longer. Her friend wasn't there to try out.

Next up was the third year. He grabbed his broomstick, cursed under his breath at his mother for making him try out, and then flew up into the air.

He wasn't bad, Danny thought, and he was particularly good at blocking difficult shots. But he kept sighing and looked like he didn't want to be there.

Finally, it was Ron's turn. He walked to the middle of the Quidditch pitch before kicking off, and positioned himself right in the middle of the highest hoop. He looked like he was flying over a field of manticores.

Danny forced himself to think positive, to think that Ron had enough practice and was definitely better then these chumps.

Then again, he'd never seen Ron so green in his life.

Danny held his breath and watched.

Ron had saved the first two goals on nerve. The third he missed. The next two, he looked more , his normal color returning to his face. He missed another, and then on the final four saves, he was actually smiling (a teensy-weensy smile which, if it weren't for Danny's enhanced senses, he would have missed).

Ron touched down onto the ground, his face lit up with pleasure, and high-fived Danny with his left hand while the right held his broomstick.

Angelina managed to get herself to the middle of the hopefuls, calling Fred and George over to her with a now hoarse voice. It took the crowd about 20 seconds to calm down.

"Alright you lot," Angelina started, "you all played your best, I'm sure, but unfortunately—"

"Or not," Fred and George said in unison.

"—we can't have all of you. After discussing with the rest of the team present," she said with a bitter tone, "we have come to a decision. Our new chasers are Danny Fenton and Sam Manson."

The crowd clapped politely, turning around to look at the couple, hearing mutters like "of course" and "I knew it."

"And our new keeper is—"

"Bloody hell," Ron whispered.

"Ron Weasley."

Ron gave a loud sigh of relief. His face flooded with the missing color, and he looked at Danny with thankful eyes.

"Now if I called your name, hang back for a bit," Angelina shouted. "The rest of you go back to the common room, or the library, or somewhere that's not here before you give me heart failure."

--LINE--


	19. Chapter 19

**A/N** - well here you go :) oh btw it's Sept14th. Just thought I'd stick that in here :)

* * *

By the time Harry had gotten out of detention, the sky had turned dark, and the tryouts were over. He had been wondering about who had made keeper; he didn't know anyone who wanted to try out for the position, but no one could replace the old brilliance of Oliver Wood.

He sighed and grudgingly made his way back to the common room, expecting to see an irate Angelina giving him a full blow by blow of what he had missed during the tryouts.

What he hadn't expected to see was Ron running at him, his face simply radiating joy and a huge smile on his face.

"I did it, Harry! I'm the new keeper!" he told Harry once he was within reach.

Harry stared in shock before his face almost matched Ron's enthusiasm. "Ron, that's great! Why didn't you tell me you were going to tryout?"

"I don't know, you just seemed so busy with other stuff and I didn't want to add another onto the list or something," said Ron, his ears turning red.

Harry raised an eyebrow. "You thought I would laugh, didn't you?"

Ron looked guilty.

"Oh, c'mon, you know me better than that. I would've helped you!"

"Yeah, well then help me before and after practices, then. Deal?"

"Deal."

They both shared a laugh.

"So, who are the Chasers?" Harry asked, already knowing the answer.

"Oh, right," Ron said, as if he just remembered. "Sam is one of the new chasers, she was the best one Angelina tried out for the team."

Harry could feel him stalling. "And—"

Ron cleared his throat. "Danny's a chaser too."

Harry feigned a smile. "Oh…great."

Ron smiled, patted his friend on the shoulder and then ran off to Tucker, asking for a rematch in Wizard's Chess, forcing Tucker to sit down when he refused.

Harry slumped down into a seat next to Hermione, who had grabbed his hand and a bowl of murtlap essence. He had forgotten about the pain in his hand while he was talking to Ron, but now that his hand was healing, he felt much better.

"So, how were the tryouts?" he asked her before she interrogated him about Umbridge.

"They were awful," she groaned. "There were only about 5 people that were any good."

"I heard Danny and Sam made the team. Are they any good?" he said, his casual voice poorly masking his curiosity.

"Well, Danny has great aim, but Sam is definitely better when it comes to speed and dodging Bludgers." Hermione hesitated before continuing. "Harry, why don't you just drop the whole act and talk to Danny again? You know you want to—"

"That's the thing, I don't care," Harry lied, his temper rising to the surface. "Hermione, you should know what this is actually about."

"I do know, which is why I think you're being foolish about this whole situation. Danny didn't do anything to you." Hermione stopped, and looked away from Harry, thinking of a way to edit the past without making it sneaky. "He was just trying to help me out. It was my idea."

"Well great, now I have to hold something against you as well," said Harry, a smile playing on his face.

"Come on, Harry, you can't honestly say that what we were thinking was a bad idea?" she asked skeptically.

Harry hesitated. "Well…why do I have to be the one to do it? It's not like I know more magic than anyone else in our year."

"But you know what it's like to actually be out there doing all the stuff we should be learning. And by the way, you do know more magic. We practiced all those spells before the tasks in the Triwizard Tournament."

Again, Harry hesitated. He seemed to be running out of excuses. "You know those too!" he finally thought. "And besides, what if we were to get caught? Umbridge would be delighted to find a reason to expel me."

"Do you honestly think we'd let you get into trouble that way?" She asked, almost hearing the I-give-up tone in his voice.

Harry ran out of things to say. Too fast. The most he could do was to look at her and sigh. But the more he stared at her please-cooperate-with-me face, the more he was unable to resist her request.

"Alright, fine, I'll do it."

Hermione's face lit up. She was radiating with joy, and the only thing that was keeping her from getting up was the mere statement that Harry would kill her if she mentioned anything to anyone too early. At this, she stopped fidgeting and froze, and Harry already knew what crossed her mind.

"Hermione, how many people have you told already?" Harry asked uneasily.

"Uh…now, don't get mad Harry, I just knew you'd give in eventually—"

"How many?"

"I think about 20. _About_, not exactly."

Before Harry could yell at her for anything, Angelina pulled him over to her and starting talking to him about something that _looked_ urgent; no doubt it was just about Quidditch.

Hermione sighed and took out her transfiguration homework, deciding to start writing that mean essay Professor McGonagall had given them earlier that day, but before she had taken her quill out, another interruption occurred.

"Hey, Hermione" said Ron as he took the unoccupied seat next to her, looking disappointed as his chess set had once again been beaten by a cleverer opponent.

"Hey Ron, congratulations again, I'm really proud of you," she said warmly.

"Thanks."

The two sat in an awkward silence.

"So," Hermione started, "how come you waited 'til this year to try out for the team?"

"Well, my old broomstick was a load of rubbish. I figured now that I have a decent broom, I'd give it a shot."

"Ah," she replied in a politely disinterested tone.

They avoided each other's gazes nervously.

Ron cleared his throat. "So, next weekend's a Hogsmeade weekend, did you see?"

"Yeah," she answered indifferently.

"Well, I was wondering if…y'know maybe you wanted to—"

"Wait…next weekend's a Hogsmeade weekend! Oh, that would be the perfect time—thanks, Ron!" She ran off, mumbling about Harry and making a list.

Ron sighed in disappointment.

* * *

"What's up, Hermione?" Harry asked, as she ran towards him.

"Did you know about the Hogsmeade weekend?" she asked him hurriedly.

"Yeah. Why?"

"Because you agreed to teach a Defense Against the Dark Arts class, and we need to tell people what it's going to be about, right? If we tell them to meet up somewhere during the weekend, none of the teachers will be there to question us about why there's a bunch of students gathering. I need to start planning this stuff…"

Hermione disappeared into the girl's dormitories, leaving Harry looking confused and trying to bite back a laugh.

He shook his head and walked to the couch next to Ron, who was staring at the fire, looking downhearted.

"What's wrong, Ron?" Harry asked.

Ron looked up, and his face lit up to quickly. "Nothing, I'm great. What's up with you?"

Harry let it slide; he'd have time to harass Ron later. Instead, he decided to tell Ron about the Defense Against the Dark Arts agreement he had with Hermione.

Ron looked excited. "So you're actually going to go through with it? The whole 'sneak past Umbridge and teach a bunch of Hogwarts students real defense' thing?"

Harry scowled, but nodded, disgruntled that Ron had just laid down all of his worries about this particular subject. Hermione is working on something to prepare for the Hogsmeade weekend. She wants to tell people about her 'brilliant' idea."

Ron's face fell ever so slightly.

"Listen, I've go to go find Danny and Sam, to congratulate them and…stuff." Harry said, clearing his throat. "Wish me luck."

"No, shan't." Ron said jokingly.

* * *

When Harry got upstairs and opened the door to the boys' dormitories, he half-expected to see the couple in a full-out snog.

But Danny and Sam were asleep on Danny's bed.

So, instead of waking them, he tiptoed back to the door, thankful for an excuse to delay the uncomfortable conversation that lay ahead.

Just as he reached for the doorknob, however, a faint gasp escaped Danny's throat, and he woke.

Harry turned around fast enough to see the remnants of a small blue mist at Danny's mouth. The room dropped about twenty degrees in temperature. He hid inside a dresser at his right, almost closing the door, but leaving it open a sliver, enough to see, but not be seen.

He stared at Danny, looking for any sudden movements, but all he saw were Danny's eyes, glowing green, scanning the room. They stopped at a point no less than ten feet away from Harry.

"Plasmius," he heard Danny mutter, waking the sleeping girl in his arms.

"Ah, Daniel, nice to see you again," said a voice in the distance. Suddenly a fanged ghost appeared at the end of the bed. "Still drunk by the looks of it? You know, there's absolutely no harm in admitting you have a problem."

"Shut up, Vlad, I'm not drunk," said Danny as Sam removed herself from Danny's chest. "What are you doing here?"

"I told you I'd be checking in on you after that little incident in the dungeons, don't you remember?"

"Yeah, and thanks to you, I'm probably one of the biggest freaks in the school, and it's not even October yet!"

"It's a shame you're horrible at Potions, Daniel, a simple Calming Drought would have worked at the time…"

Harry rolled his eyes at the ghost and looked back at Danny, who wasn't listening either, but was whispering something quietly in Sam's ear, something that the ghost apparently didn't notice, because he just kept rambling on.

Sam looked up at Danny and raised an eyebrow, shrugging when he saw the secure look on his face. She stealthily slid off the bed without Plasmius noticing (he was still talking and looking into space) and opened the top drawer of Danny's nightstand. She pulled out a small, neon green sphere and began adjusting a few buttons on the surface of the device. Once she finished, she threw the device at Vlad.

Vlad, who still hadn't noticed anything, was surprised to see the device flying towards him, and with the unnerving skills of a Seeker (Harry was quite impressed) the ghost caught it. He tried throwing it back to Sam, but when it left his hand, it stopped a foot from his face and was floating in midair before him. Before he was able to ask any questions, though, a small, greenish blob came out from the device and began enclosing around Vlad. The second his entire body was covered the blob became small again. It disappeared back into the device and it fell to the ground. Vlad was gone.

As Sam was getting up to pick up the device, Danny held her back on the bed. His eyes turned green and he was scanning the room again. Harry was sure Danny wouldn't be able to see him, seeing as how Harry held no trace of ectoplasm in his body, but when the eyes stopped and looked at his hiding spot, he froze.

"Harry?" Danny called to him.

Harry stepped out of the dresser, refusing to meet Danny's green gaze.

"I needed to talk to you, so I came to find you, but you were sleeping and then when I tried to leave you woke up and that other ghost came so I hid in the dresser."

Danny's eyes returned to normal. "You're lucky Vlad didn't see you," Danny muttered. "What did you want?"

"Well, I just wanted to…" he cleared his throat, "y'know apologize. I had no reason to threaten you like that, and it was a spur-of-the-moment kind of thing. So I came to tell you that."

They both stared at each other for a second that lasted forever.

"Oh," Harry said suddenly, "I'm doing the Defense Against the Dark Arts thing."

Danny didn't reply, but just nodded, moving his eyes away from Harry's. The two boys awkwardly rolled their eyes around the room, Harry swaying from the balls of his feet to his heel. Sam spoke to break the tension.

"So when did you decide this?" she asked Harry.

"Just now downstairs. Hermione started interrogating me and I got cornered by her questioning."

"That's great, Harry!" Sam said, sitting up straighter.

"Wait a second," Danny said before Harry got a word out to Sam. "Are you telling me that you're doing this no strings attached? Why the sudden change?"

"I told you, Hermione wouldn't leave me alone about it."

The two looked at each other one more time before Danny's ghost sense went off again.

"Oh, no, Vlad can't have gotten out that quickly—"

"I AM THE BOX GHOST! FEAR ME, FOR I CARRY THE MOST LETHAL OF PACKAGING SUPPLIES!!"

"Of course," Danny said dully. He quickly changed into his ghost form and flew out the window where boxes were being thrown into dorms and into classrooms by the ridiculous creature.

Sam sighed and silently chuckled as a box was apparently thrown at Danny's head. She looked under his bed for a thermos, and once she found it, she walked over to the window, pressed the button on the side, and the blue beam caught the box ghost in. loud swearing about vengeance and cardboard-y doom was echoing throughout the castle.

Harry slowly edged out of the room, a confused but satisfied look on his face as he walked back down the stairs to sit next to Ron, who still hadn't moved, and his facial expression was the same as before.

Harry decided that it was later, even though it had only been a couple of minutes. "What's wrong, Ron?"

Ron looked up. "Nothing, really, just thinking about stuff…"

"What stuff?" Harry egged him on.

Ron sighed. "It's nothing, really. I'll tell you later if I remember. Right now, I'm tired, so I'm gunna go up to bed."

He got up, walked to the dormitories, and before Harry could call him back, he disappeared behind the corner.

* * *

**A/N** - aha poor Ron. I don't even know what got me writing that whole R/Hr scene, it was just a whim. proudness...


	20. Chapter 20

_Afraid of a needle," he muttered to himself under his breath, shaking his head. . "Oh, a sadistic vampire, intent on torturing her to death, sure, no problem, she runs off to meet him. An IV on the other hand…"_

**A/N **– i feel absolutely horrible not having updated in like, 4-5 months. and then erasing, reposting and editing the story was absolutely HORRIBLE. i wanna apologize for this, utterly stupid. aahh! i have reasons though. well aside from the obvious, i was in nicaragua (lookitup! :D) and i rarely ever got internet there, i don't know how i started posting up _Three Months_ there, but i did. woo! and then when i got back it was basically drill, studying drill knowledge, and more drill. and now i'm starting junior year, and i get in 7:15am, get out 6:00pm. being on drill is going to kill me and my grades. ugh. AND i joined the DP-Angst thing as issued on DeviantArt (or at least that's where i saw it, check it out: dp-angst. deviantart. com)  
and on top of all that, i was DESPERATELY trying to make this chapter SOLONG so that you guys would have something worth while to read instead of what i'm putting out. :( i feel so stupid right now.

**Disclaimer** - nyaa too disappointed to care for lawyers.

_I edited a lot of the story before this. you should probably reread, most of it is EXTREMELY different._

* * *

_September 22nd_

"Hermione, did you have to pick this place?" Danny asked warily. "It looks…well, it's not the kind of place where a bunch of kids usually hang out."

"It was the only place I could think of in Hogsmeade that we'd be able to sit and talk without being interrupted or overheard by anyone."

Sam grimaced and stepped closer to Danny. "It smells, Hermione," She complained. "And we're not even inside, yet."

Hermione glared at the group before walking in, and everyone else followed her in.

When they walked in, Danny groaned at the smell, and Sam and Harry whirled right back around and walked face first into Ron and Tucker, who were the last of the six to walk in.

The innkeeper who was in the back sweeping looked up at the loud groan Danny let out, and he didn't look back down; he just stared at them. From the way the place looked from the inside, he obviously didn't get too many customers, save for the two sitting at the bar table. One of them was covered in bandages, leaving slits for his eyes, nose and mouth; the other was an ugly witch with a veil. There was dust on everything, and Danny could swear he picked up a smell of a wet goat somewhere from around the corner of the back of the bar.

They hid their displeasure and sat in chairs, Sam choosing Danny's lap rather than choosing one of the dusty old things, making room for the large crowd they were expecting; according to Hermione, there were a total of at least 20 people expected to show up.

"So when are these people coming anyways?" Danny asked. "It'd be a shame if the first Hogsmeade trip that Sam, Tucker and I get to go to is completely wasted on this."

Almost on cue, the inn doors opened, revealing the first of the crowd: Neville and Dean came in, followed immediately by Lavender Brown and the Patil Twins, who were draped around the arms of Dash, who looked smug. Danny stole a glance at a red-faced Harry as Cho Chang walked in, followed by one of her giggling friends who, at the moment, seemed extremely unpleasant. Danny recognized her as one of the girls that was eyeing him the whole way down the Great Hall his first day at Hogwarts, and as one of the girls that kept following him to his classes (he held Sam closer to his chest). Luna Lovegood, looking so spaced that she could've walked in by accident, sat in a chair next to Neville who smiled awkwardly and shifted to the other side of his chair.

Angelina Johnson came in with Lee Jordan following her with googly eyes and the Weasley Twins trying to sell her another batch of Fainting Fancies. Two jittery underclassmen Gryffindors came in, trying to get seats as close to Harry as possible. Next, four Hufflepuffs walked in; two boys, and two girls.

_'The one in the front looks like a pompous ass,'_ Danny thought.

Ginny Weasley came in with a Ravenclaw boy walking uncomfortably close to her, but apparently she didn't seem fazed by it. They were followed by two other boys that were also in Ravenclaw, and wrapping it all up was a lone Hufflepuff boy that Danny recognized from the Quidditch tryouts (he sat in the bleachers with the others) who sat next to the other Hufflepuffs, talking in a low voice and glancing at Harry skeptically.

By the time everyone was settled in, Danny had forgotten what they were there to do, and was simply surprised that so many people actually came. He looked over to Harry; he seemed just as surprised, probably thinking that there were so many people willing to come listen to elusive Harry Potter or something along those lines.

Fortunately for Harry, most of the eyes were glancing from Harry to Danny, Sam and Tucker. Harry was thankful for some kind of distraction; the other three were used to people staring at them. If it was at school for their "loser" social status or during a ghost fight in the middle of Amity Park, people stared.

Hermione saved them by standing up in the middle of the crowd.

"Uh…hi," she said nervously.

They stared at her now, and her cheeks flushed pink.

"Well," she started again, "you all have a basic idea as to why we're here, so, um…" she trailed off (it wasn't hard to tell that she was being intimidated by all the faces).

Danny shook his head and stood up next to Hermione, letting Sam have his chair.

"Alright, so Hermione and I had this idea that we should practice real defense, instead of that crap that Umbridge is spewing out," he said straight out.

"Why?" a voice in the back.

"Why?" Ron repeated incredulously. "Because You-Know-Who's back, in case you've forgotten."

"What makes you say he's back?" the same voice asked. Danny recognized him as the last boy that walked into the inn.

"Who're _you_?" Fred Weasley asked rudely. The kid was sitting two seats away from where he was.

"Zacharias Smith," he said to the twins before turning back to Danny. "What makes you say that You-Know-Who is back?" he repeated. "What makes you think that Umbridge isn't teaching us enough of what we need to do?"

Danny glared at him before turning around to look at what Harry said on this subject.

He was still, his green eyes staring pointedly towards the floor. He sighed before standing up in front of the crowd, his eyes on Smith. "If you're here for another explanation of what Dumbledore told you in June, then you'd better clear out now. I'm not wasting my afternoon telling you what it's like to watch someone get murdered by Voldemort."

Shudders rolled down the backs of almost everyone in the room.

Danny clapped a hand on his cousin's shoulder. "Harry's right. We're not here to discuss anything about what happened. I don't want to hear that story again." This time shudders rolled down his back as he remembered his weeks at Grimmauld Place and the long-winded story about the TriWizard tournament. "Things everywhere have been getting worse, and there's no way that the Ministry's theory is going to help anyone if they get attacked."

"Yeah," one of the Hufflepuff girls said. "Even the Muggle ghosts are getting more malevolent. I mean, they weren't really much of a threat until this year, it was only on a rare occasion that someone would spot one, but now they won't stop attacking, especially the big metal one, the guys with the helmets, and the one that doesn't stop going on about boxes."

"That's where you come in," Hermione muttered to Danny, Sam and Tucker.

Tucker stood up. "Sam, Danny and I used to hunt ghosts back in Amity Park. We've dealt with almost all of the ghosts everyone's seen at Hogwarts—,"

"And then some," Danny said bitterly.

"—and we know what we're up against. I know we're new with the way things are done at Hogwarts and we have a hell of a lot to learn, but when it comes to ghosts like the ones that are starting to show up at school, you're basically screwed without us."

The silence that came after Tucker had spoken was broken quickly as most of the kids in the crowd broke out in worried whispers to each other; it was understandable, considering the blunt way Tucker pointed out the obvious.

But a fair few were smiling, excited to have this kind of action in school (the Weasley twins, Lee Jordan and the Ravenclaws sitting next to Ginny were part of them).

Danny's eyebrows furrowed together. What if these people went hunting for the ghosts? What if they were secretly hoping to get attacked by some ghost when they turned a corner at Hogwarts?

"Look," he said before any more ideas could come to their minds or his, "we're not here to tell you to go looking for trouble. We have all of that ghost stuff handled. All we really need to figure out is why the ghosts are appearing now…" he trailed off, stepping back and looking down at his feet as they shuffled backwards.

He couldn't help but think that the only reason for the sudden ghost uprising in the magical community was his fault, that they followed him here. It was probably true, considering his disappearance was no longer a secret, courtesy of Vlad—

Though how he Vlad knew so much about the Wizarding World in the first place was something that Danny hadn't gotten around to thinking about.

"…and we have plenty of weapons that can help us fight them off," Tucker finished, pulling out a fully charged ectogun. Danny missed the beginning of his sentence.

Sam tugged on Tucker's elbow. "How have we been keeping those charged, anyways? Electricity doesn't work here…"

Both Danny and Sam stared at Tucker accusingly. He just blushed and looked down at his feet, shifting slyly away before Sam could land a punch.

He didn't move fast enough.

"Ow, Sam!" he said after she retreated her hand from the future bruise on his arm. "Alright, alright, I've been using the ectoplasm from the ghosts that are stuck in the thermoses. It's not hurting anyone, and they'll just get it all back when we send them back to the Ghost Zone."

Danny shook his head as he laughed. "I knew there was something," he said to Sam. "If there was no technology he would've gone crazy by now."

Tucker smiled and pulled out a modified PDA, with green stripes running along the back of it from the liquefied ectoplasm. "So does it matter if I use this again?" he asked them. "It's been torture having to hide it from everyone."

"No," Sam said quickly. "You can't use that thing at school! What are the other kids going to think?"

Tucker pouted.

"Alright, can we get back to why we're here in the first place?" Hermione asked impatiently. When Danny nodded, she continued. "So like Danny said earlier, the reason we're here is to help out with real defense. Harry has enough experience in that field when it comes to magic," she and Harry winced, "and lucky for us, Danny, Sam and Tucker have agreed to help with the Muggle ghosts—"

"Is it true that you can produce a Patronus?" the same Hufflepuff girl said, looking straight at Harry.

Harry lifted his chin up an inch. "Yeah, Professor Lupin taught me third year."

A wave of whispers broke out again as some of the students stared at Harry in awe. He felt uncomfortable again.

"Well I'm not the only one who can do it, Danny can to!" he said quickly, diverting the attention from himself. He was unsuccessful as Neville brought up more of his "achievements".

"Yeah, and one of the portraits in Dumbledore's office told me he killed a basilisk with the sword in there," he said in awe.

"Yeah, but—"

"And in third year, he fought off about a hundred dementors at once on his own," someone else said.

"Well, there's a simple explana—"

"Not to mention the tasks he had to do last year in the TriWizard Tournament," Cho said, putting Harry's stuttering to a stop as he blushed in embarrassment.

Harry shook his head and looked away from the pretty Asian girl. "Guys, I had a lot of help with most of that stuff. Most of it was just luck and chance. I could've been dead a million times over," he explained.

Danny snorted. "Yeah, and you learned a lot on the way. I would've never been able to catch up on those magic lessons this summer without your help. Admit it; most of it was all you."

Harry scowled but didn't disagree.

"Okay, so is everyone committed to this?" Hermione asked the crowd.

"This can't interfere with out Quidditch practices," Angelina said loudly.

"No," Cho said immediately afterwards. "Nor with ours."

"Nor ours," Zacharias repeated.

"I'm sure we'll find a schedule that fits for everyone," Hermione said exasperatedly. "For now we need to find a place to meet up."

The entire room was silent for a minute.

"Library?" Alicia suggested.

"I can't see any librarian being too happy about having twenty or so kids practicing jinxes in the library," Danny said in reply.

"The Shrieking Shack?" Ginny said unwillingly.

"Not bloody likely," said Ron darkly. "Besides, it's too small for this many people."

"Well whatever," Sam said dismissively. "We'll have to find a place eventually. Let's leave that for next time."

"Right," Hermione said, turning to her chair and rummaging through her bag, pulling out a quill and a piece of parchment. "I think everyone should write their names down, so we know who was here and so we can remember who to go to when we find a place."

Danny almost laughed out loud. The whole room instantaneously stiffened, everyone looking side to side.

Hermione frowned. "What's wrong?"

Ernie Macmillan spoke for all of them, moving towards the light as his prefect badge shined in it. "I don't think most of us would be comfortable with signing a list."

"Why not?"

"Well, what if that list gets into the wrong hands or something? Then what'll happen?" He asked, imitating Hermione's frown.

Only now, her face was decorated with a scowl. "Ernie, do you really think I'm going to leave that list lying around anywhere? I'd get in as much trouble as anyone else."

Ernie said nothing more and got up from his seat, grabbing the quill from Hermione and signing his name under the six that were already there.

One by one, the line became steadily longer, and the lists started filling up with names. The girl who eyed Danny on her way (her name was Marietta Edgecombe) signed her name ten times slower than all the others, glancing up at Danny hopefully after every letter. Sam and Tucker had a hard time controlling their giggles behind their hands.

When she got to the "c" in "Edgecombe", while Tucker was still giggling, Sam's had died out, replacing her grin with a scowl when she realized this Marietta girl was seriously checking out _her_ boyfriend.

Female instincts kicking in, she made a bee-line towards Danny, who was shifting his weight and looking around the room awkwardly as the succubus looked up again. Sam whipped him around, brought his neck down and kissed him full on the lips. Tucker's smallish giggles break out into loud laughs, holding his stomach and wiping tears from his eyes as Marietta's wide eyes droppedjaw dropped. She scribbled the last four letters messily and stomped out.

"Stupid whore," Sam said darkly in between kisses.

* * *

Kill me. PLEASE. I hate that this is so short, when it was originally planned out to be SO LONG. And on top of that, how long has it been since an update?! JESUS, I'm never on schedule for anything! I don't like myself too much. Uugghh I'm so mad at me! –scolds herself-

-skitzo


	21. Chapter 21

**A/N** – fillerish. Less than fillerish. This could be a one-shot if I wanted it to be, I think. Sorry :|. but yay, a scrolly thing in the chapter tab! :D

**Disclaimer **– Yadda Yadda, I don't own squat. the lovely and beautiful Butch Hartman and J.K. Rowling are responsible for my freakish obsession. - - ;) lol

* * *

Hermione's face was lit up as the six of them walked out of the Hog's Head. "Well, that went better than I thought it would. And it didn't smell as bad as I imagined."

Danny was taking deep breaths, scowling at Hermione. "Yeah, only your nose isn't unusually sensitive**(1)**," he said, wincing when the sudden fresh air hit him.

Sam laughed and kissed the tip of his nose as they walked into Honeydukes, which, from what they heard was the best sweet shop in London.

"Aw, poor Danny, you want a lollipop?"

"Yes. Yes I do."

They shared a laugh and walked away to a stand completely covered in absolutely nothing but lollipops of every kind.

Hermione, Ron and Harry stayed with Tucker at a table they managed to grab after a couple of 3rd years walked out in awe. Tucker's jaw seemed permanently unhinged.

"Holy. Shit." His jaw pulled back up before he pulled out his bag of money and got lost in the candy store.

* * *

Danny and Sam had managed to find their way out of the store, two medium-sized lollipops in each of their hands while they walked to who-knows-where. They had absolutely no idea where they were, and no intention of finding out anytime soon. The moment seemed too good to last.

They reached the outskirts of town and saw a tiny shack sitting on a hill with barbed wire surrounding the perimeter about twenty feet out away from the place. This seemed like a good place to stop, so they sat down on the ground.

"So," Sam started, throwing the remains of her lollipop on the ground, "how do you like Hogwarts Mr. Skeptical?"

Danny scowled at her playfully. "It's not so bad. A lot more drama than high school, but not bad. I can't get over the fact that Dash is here, though; too weird."

She rolled her eyes. "You share a dorm with him, you're going to have to get used to it eventually.

"Yeah, I know, it's just that it's weird to actually talk to Dash without snapping back at a negative comment."

She laughed loudly, sending shivers up his spine.

It was weird; all this lovey-dovey stuff with Sam had always made Danny nervous, but now it felt so normal to him. He's wake up every morning and anxiously wait for her arrival as he stood in the common room with the other 5th years. And every time she'd look at him, it was her eyes that had him crumbling from the inside.

She had him in the palm of her hand, and they both knew it. But Danny didn't care. He was still happily surprised that she hadn't gotten sick of him yet. There were tons of other guys here that would jump at her command.

Danny smiled to himself as he stared at her. At least none of the other guys would ever jump as high. He'd fly if he had to.

Sam stared back, the remainder of her laughs leaving a smile on her face. God, he loved her so much.

He bent his head down and placed a blissful kiss to her lips, hugging her close when he pulled away.

* * *

"So, you're telling me that these actually taste like blood?" Tucker asked, curiously grossed out as he examined the blood-flavored Lollipops.

Ron nodded through a mouthful of colored gummy worms that moved in his hand. Tucker cringed.

"There's not only the gross stuff, you know," Hermione said matter-of-factly. "There's normal cool stuff like Droobles Bubble Gum; those fill the room with bluebell-colored bubbles that refuse to pop. Or Fizzing Whizbees; massive sherbet balls that make you levitate."

"Yeah, yeah, what other _cool_ stuff is there?"

Ron smiled. "There are Jelly Slugs, Sugar Quills (suck on them in class and it looks like you're thinking), Peppermint Toads—"

"Wait," Tucker interrupted, "they aren't real toads, are they?"

"No," Ron said, grimacing. "They just hop in your stomach, like real toads, only without the gross factor. Kind of like Chocolate Frogs; it's just a spell."

Tucker smiled this time. "I love magic."

* * *

Draco Malfoy was the farthest thing away from simple. He loved anything dark and extravagant, and took any and every single chance given to him to rat someone else out for something bad.

So _why_ in Merlin's name couldn't he bring himself to say anything about the meeting he saw in the Hog's Head Inn to Professor Umbridge? All he had to do was walk up to the castle and tell her. But he just couldn't do it.

He knew why; he just didn't want to admit it to _anyone_. Ever. Especially not when she was dating that Fenton kid.

His father would be ashamed. Gryffindors were basically forbidden territory to Slytherins. It wasn't normal, and it certainly wasn't civilized. She wasn't even a pureblood. But he simply didn't care. Not when it came to the Manson girl.

It felt weird to him. This feeling was new, and certainly not something he'd ever experienced. There weren't many girls that attended Hogwarts that Draco thought were worthy of him, and he reveled in the fact and basked in the glow of the hopeful faces of the beautiful Slytherin damsels. But Samantha Manson…she was something else entirely; a diamond in the rough.

So when Malfoy ditched his friends and walked straight into a clearing where a heated make-out session between her and Danny was taking place, his cheeks turned red in anger, and he knew that it was just going to take that much longer for them to be over, for him to get a chance with Sam…

"Geez, give us a break and get outta here, will you?" Danny said, scowling at Draco as he fixed his hair.

He composed his face and made to tease them. But nothing came to mind.

"Malfoy, get out of here," Sam said. But her tone wasn't angry, and it wasn't negative. It was simply annoyed, with maybe a hint of embarrassment.

He tried to be nice. It wasn't his thing, especially not when it came to Gryffindors, ugh, but if it helped bring Sam on his good side, at least he'd get something out of it.

"Hey, Sam," he said to her, a slight smile on his face. It was hard to control; he almost smirked at her.

She smiled back. "Hey yourself," she said smartly. "What are you doing here all by yourself?"

"Oh, a little of this, a little of that." Malfoy replied. He nodded his head towards Danny in a somewhat friendly motion. At least it wasn't a sneer, anyways.

Danny scowled and nodded back, staring at Malfoy as he looked back at Sam. And Draco was sure Danny could see his hopeful expression towards Sam. Seconds later, Danny held her tighter.

"Where are your _bodyguards_?" Sam teased at him.

Malfoy laughed. He figured he might as well play along with her. "Who knows, those idiots don't have a clue." And it wasn't a lie; Crabbe and Goyle were exceedingly dim-witted. He rolled his eyes. Why he talked to such people was such a mystery. But if they're Slytherins, they were good company. At least according to his father.

And the Dark Lord, but he wasn't about to say that in front of Sam.

"So, why do you talk to them?" Sam said curiously, her eyebrow raised. Danny didn't like how nonchalant her voice sounded. Like if she was talking to an equal rather than a stupid Slytherin.

Or at least that's what it looked like to Draco.

"It's complicated," he replied.

"Doesn't seem that way…I mean if you think they're so dumb, make new friends. Or at the very least help them find a clue." She rolled her eyes. "You Slytherins have a bad reputation of talking to no one else but yourselves, and it's going to bring you down eventually."

Malfoy blinked. She was right, and everyone in his house knew it, but to have her put it out there so bluntly…

"Well it's not like there are too many others in this school worthy to talk to—" He stopped himself.

Bad move.

"No one worthy to talk to?" She snapped. "Are you kidding me? You don't even know anyone else in this school!"

He flushed. "I didn't mean it like that—"

"So what did you mean?"

She was feisty, wasn't she? "I only meant that it's practically impossible to have a long decent conversation with someone in this school without it drifting to something like Harry _bloody_ Potter or You-Know-Who!"

Her eyes narrowed as she measured his face. Well, he wasn't lying about that, either.

She huffed out a breath and stood up, dragging Danny up with her. "Whatever, Malfoy. You should get back to your friends. I'm sure they're looking _everywhere_ for you."

He smiled at her sarcasm, and she smiled back.

"Yeah…" he said to her. "See you later, Sam, Danny," he said, nodding his head towards the two.

But before he turned around and left, he muttered a small precaution.

"This never happened, agreed?" He asked her with apprehension.

She rolled her eyes and smirked. "Agreed."

"Good."

As Draco walked out of the clearing, he felt blissful…light-weighted almost. He'd just befriended an enemy, or what he was grown up to believe was an enemy. And yet the words his father had told him prior to his years at Hogwarts about everyone else being inferior to the Slytherin House had faded away as the conversation between him and Sam played over in his head.

He broke all the rules, and possibly set himself up to mockery for the rest of his life by his fellow Slytherins, and the only thing he could think of was when the next time he'd be able to speak to her would arrive.

A smile appeared on the boy's face as he approached his feeble minded friends.

* * *

**A/N **– lol. So I guess it's not so fillerish. That ending part with Malfoy is going to have a pretty big part in the coming chapters, so watch out! :D I'm so happy I'm getting back on track with this story.

Btw, keep an eye out for a new Twilight x DPhantom story. I'm working on it now, and even though it's mainly Twilight (the only DP character is Dani), there are some interesting twists :D LOOK FOR IT SOON!

**(1) - Check out my profile for my theory on Danny's powers :)**

-skitzo


	22. Chapter 22

**A/N** - Chapter 22. Whoopee.

**Disclaimer** – THERE'S AN ARROW IN YOUR BUTT!!

* * *

_October 1st_

**--**

**BY ORDER OF THE HIGH INQUISITOR OF HOGWARTS**

**All Student Organizations, Societies, Teams, Groups, and Clubs are henceforth disbanded.**

**An Organization, Society, Team, Group, or Club is hereby defined as a regular meeting of three or more students.**

**Permission to re-form may be sought from the High Inquisitor (Professor Umbridge).**

**No Student Organization, Society, Team, Group, or Club may exist without the knowledge and approval of the High Inquisitor.**

**Any student found to have formed, or to belong to, an Organization, Society, Team, Group or Club that has not been approved by the High Inquisitor will be expelled.**

_**The above is in accordance with Educational Decree Number Twenty-Five.**_

**Signed: Dolores Jane Umbridge, High Inquisitor.**

**MINISTRY OF MAGIC**

**--**

"I don't believe this," Danny said, staring at the bulletin in disbelief.

Ron was seething. He rounded on Danny. "Someone _had_ to have said something."

"Anyone who said something should've known they were going to get in trouble with Umbridge." Danny said reasonably.

"No way, that is way too much of a coincidence." Ron was still scowling at the bulletin. "Do Harry and Hermione know about this?"

"I don't know. What about Sam and Tucker?"

"Beats me. Let's go find them."

Ron and Danny walked away from the bulletin as Harry, Sam and Tucker walked in with books from the library in their hands.

"Hey guys," Sam said cheerily before frowning at the scowls on their faces. "What's wrong?"

"Did you see the new 'Educational Decree' that Umbridge put out?" Ron asked them quickly.

Sam raised an eyebrow. "No…why, what does it say?"

He led them to the bulletin board and watched as they took it in.

Tucker and Harry stayed silent; Sam was almost just as mad as Ron.

"Who the _hell_ would say something?" she hissed.

Danny shook his head, snaking his arm around Sam's waist and kissing her forehead. "No one that was at that first meeting would have said something. They all knew the consequences."

She pulled back from him, but he held her tight. "Oh, yeah? So how do you think she found out?"

Danny scowled and remained silent.

Ron was pacing now. "We need to go tell Hermione."

The four of them watched as Ron stalked off to the girls' dormitories before looking back at each other.

"When did this get out?" Harry asked, looking at the bulletin again.

Danny shrugged. "We don't know. Me and Ron came downstairs and saw a bunch of people crowding, so we came and saw that thing. McGonagall probably put it up there last night."

Tucker was in a corner, facing the wall, a bright light emitting from the space between him and the wall.

"Tuck, what are you doing?"

He cocked his head a bit to the left, the tip of his PDA showing. "I'm going through the list of people that were at that first meeting and looking for who might've said anything—"

"_Aahh!_"

Tucker hid his PDA behind his back to turn with everyone else in the common room to see Ron, sliding onto the floor, his arms flailing to keep balance, as the stairs to the girls' dormitories melted together into a stone slide.

They turned around and forgot about the noise.

"I bet it was that Smith kid," Danny said. "He looked pretty fishy to me. And the way he was questioning everything…. He was obnoxious."

"But just because he's obnoxious doesn't mean he would have said anything," Sam said. "He was open about what he wanted to say, even if it was a load of bullshit."

Ron and Hermione joined the group, Ron pink in the face and Hermione with a small smile on her face.

"What happened?" Tucker asked.

Ron said nothing, but grumbled something about girls and unfairness.

Harry disregarded it and turned to Hermione. "Have you seen the new bulletin?"

"No…" she looked at the circle around her. "Why, is it something bad?"

"Oh, it's bad." Harry said. "I told you something like this would happen, didn't I?"

They led her to the board and watched her as she read it and took it in.

She gasped. "Umbridge found out?"

"Yeah, only we don't know how she found out," Ron said, turning to Tucker. "Have you figured out our suspects yet?"

He shook his head.

"It was probably the one that had his hands all over Ginny," Ron said. "Check him out, Tucker."

Even turned around, it was obvious Tucker was rolling his eyes.

"No one said anything, Ron." Hermione said, still eyeing the bulletin.

"Oh please, Hermione, the evidence is right there! Not everyone has a heart of gold—"

"No, I mean I would know if someone told. I jinxed the paper before everyone signed," she said dismissively. "I wonder if this has been put up in all the houses…"

"C'mon," Harry said as Hermione studied the bulletin further. "Let's go see who else has seen it."

* * *

The second the group stepped into the Great Hall, they saw various familiar faces turn in their direction, and as they went to sit down, too many of them stood up and walked in a b-line towards the Gryffindor table, specifically towards Hermione, who was trying to ward off the buzzards before they got caught.

Ginny stood and said something about Michael Corner, one of the Ravenclaws at the meeting, and rolled her eyes before leaving.

"What does Ginny have to do with Michael Corner?" Ron asked, frowning.

"Oh, her and Michael are dating," Hermione answered dismissively.

The hot soup Ron was about to put in his mouth missed and fell into his lap, making him yelp girlishly in response.

"_What do you mean she's dating Michael Corner?_" Ron hissed. "He's _way_ too old!"

Hermione rolled her eyes. "He's only like 4 or 5 months older than her, Ron. She knows how to handle herself."

He looked dumbstruck for a moment before continuing his tirade. "Who is he, anyways? And didn't she like Harry?"

"Well she did, but she gave up on that ages ago. She's fine with him and all, but since the fish doesn't seem to be biting back…"

They all turned to look at Harry, who was holding himself aloof from this conversation as he stared at a beautiful Asian girl at the Ravenclaw table.

Sam rolled her eyes at Ron. "She's fourteen, Ron, not six. I had my first boyfriend at her age."

"Gregor," Danny growled. "He doesn't count; he was working for the Guys in White."

"No he wasn't," Tucker contradicted. "He ran away after admitting he was pretending to be the man of Sam's dreams while making me and you look like shmucks in comparison because he liked Sam. The GIW came in later on, and Gregor—or rather Elliot, was not working for them because he ran away from them."

Danny's scowl deepened while Sam laughed. He rounded on her. "Why did you go out with him anyways?"

"Because he asked," she said simply, shrugging. "Regardless of my strange and morbid ways, I have a girl mind and normal girl feelings. He was flattering and sweet and charming…and I fell for every single one of his tricks. You can't blame me for feeling something when a guy compliments me twenty-four/seven."

She started blushing and tried to cover her cheeks with her short hair.

Danny smiled and pulled her close to him, tucking her hair back behind her ear.

"You're beautiful," he whispered.

She smiled sweetly and kissed the tip of his nose.

"So are you."

He closed in for a kiss and—got hit in the head with a French fry.

"Yeesh, knock it off," Tucker whined. "I'm eating. None of us need to see that."

Danny picked up the French fry Tucker threw and chucked it back, picking up some more and eating them as Tucker got up and started running. Sam laughed and joined in.

People turned and some smiled as they watch the Trio leave the Great Hall.

* * *

The lake was a good place to think when there was no one around. Nice…quiet. Beautiful.

Not that Draco enjoyed the view, or anything. He just needed to be alone and away from the scene of hostility and superiority that radiated off of his fellow Slytherins.

That stupid Manson girl had given him strange thoughts, thoughts no well-respected Slytherin should be thinking about a Gryffindor. They were kind thoughts. Compliments. She's made him want to be good, to actually try decency towards the opposing side. But how would he do it without getting shunned by everyone around him at the same time?

He sighed, lying down on the grass, watching the clouds go by…

_That one looks like a flower…_

And that's where he drew the line.

He growled and turned his head away from the sky.

It wasn't like he could do anything about it; the thoughts were coming to him unintentionally. He just wanted to talk to her again. Maybe if he did he'd be able to control himself before he said something ridiculous. But even so, she was unavailable. He would have to wait.

He found himself thinking positively again. Or maybe it was negatively…

Sam Manson was taken…

_So I'll _have_ to wait_. There was no use in whisking her away from him when he'd lose her in the process. It'd be a long wait. And he'd have to be…nicer, to them. To all of them.

_Even _Scarhead_…ugh._

He thought back to the day at Hogsmeade and swam in the bittersweet memory.

* * *

Danny's ghost sense went off.

"Aw, crap," he said as Sam looked back, frowning.

"We'll be in the forest," she said. They had plans to go exploring, bringing along fully charged ecto weapons and their wands polished. "Be careful," she said nervously.

He gave her a fleeting kiss and nodded to Tucker, changing and flying off as he did.

He searched around, not seeing anything. Not that it changed anything. There was an eerie chill in the air, though, and sent shivers up and down Danny's spine.

"Hey Dipstick."

Danny sighed. "I was wondering when you'd show up, Ember. What do you want?"

She laughed and let go of her invisibility. "The same as all of the ghosts you know want right now. We want to know how you managed to make your way here, to a magic school of all places."

"Forget about that," Danny said sharply, "how is it that all of you know how to get here and what this place is, anyway?"

"There's a natural portal somewhere over the castle. It's been open for centuries, according to some of the gasbags back in the Zone. No one's bothered to go through it because it was nothing interesting, or at least it wasn't until now.

"So," she continued, "how'd you do it?"

Danny rolled his eyes. "Do what?"

"Get in? How'd you get in to Hogwarts?"

He shrugged. "They came to me, not the other way around. In case you haven't noticed, this is my first year here—"

"And yet you're starting out as a fifth year…" Her tone was skeptical.

"Look, does it even matter? I'm here. It's done with. Now get out of here, Ember."

"Hm, I don't think so. The Ghost Zone is a bit boring right now, and I get a kick out of your pain."

Before Danny could take in her words, she strummed a loud, blaring power chord right at Danny, and a pink fist came flying his way.

It made contact and sent him somersaulting through the air, losing altitude as he went, landing in a small meadow with a Hogwarts student sitting on the floor, deeply in thought.

The student lifted his head at the tremors in the ground as Danny's body made a small crack in it, but Danny didn't have time to register his reaction as Ember was already back, her guitar a-blazing.

She landed twenty feet away, the contact between her feet and the earth sending more tremors, and strummed another chord. Danny narrowly dodged it and jumped between Ember and the kid.

She laughed and the blue flames that were her hair wrapped around her and she disappeared, her laugh continuous and menacing. She was still in the meadow.

A fist made contact with the back of Danny's head as she reappeared. He stumbled forwards, but quickly regained his balance and spun around, his hand in a fist, ready for close combat. After a brief quiet second, they charged.

Ember held her guitar like a sword, swinging it around Danny's head with a rock star flare as she growled and snarled at him. He barely had time to get a hit in, but when he did, Ember's guitar snapped in half, and she shrieked. He had an ectoblast ready in his hand, and fired it before she had time to recover from the loud scream.

She skidded backwards and caught herself before she was too far from her target, then bolted forwards, her arms extended to grab Danny.

He was dragged up into the sky, her momentum building as she went higher and higher.

All of a sudden at about fifty yards in the air, she stopped, cackling evilly. Then she dropped, never letting Danny go.

He struggled, kicked, punched, scratched at her until she would let go, and when she didn't, he tried to go intangible, only to be hit hard across the face, keeping him solid.

Ten yards before they hit the ground, she let go, flying in another direction, and Danny dropped faster than he'd ever gone.

The sound that came out when Danny made contact with the floor was threatening and attracting and just plain _loud_. And the crater that was left in his body shape was about five feet deep.

He laid there for a while, relaxing his muscles as they took the blow slowly. He felt the two white rings slowly appear and encase his body, transforming him back into Danny Fenton with a flash of light. It took him a while to actually move. There were stars in his eyes, and a cool liquid dripping down his leg let him know that he was bleeding.

He groaned, painfully moving to sit at an upright position, grabbing his head as he swooned. He reached for the edge of the Danny-shaped hole and started hoisting himself up, much to his flimsy, weak arms protesting against it.

The light from the sun burned his eyes, which still held the stars in place, though he could see his surroundings as well. A roaring headache was threatening to burst through his temple, and the blood dripping down his leg had started to progress into a steady flow. On top of all that, Ember had gotten away, the smoking remains of her guitar still littering the meadow. But he had bigger problems.

For instance, Draco Malfoy, sitting wide-eyed and slack-jawed like a deer caught in headlights, staring dead at Danny _Fenton_, who moments ago had crashed into the Earth as a ghost was bad. Comprehension dawning on his face was even worse.

That was a problem.

**

* * *

A/N** – Yes, I know. It's been months since an update, and I'm truly sorry about that. I've been busy, and finding time to type this story up is getting harder and harder. But I'm making it work and, even though it's at a sluggish pace, I'm getting chapters out. So yeah, updates are going to come a bit slower. Midterms, regents, and Drill practice; they take a lot of time out of my day, and out of my sleeping hours. They're coming, just slowly. And this chapter is hideously short, in my opinion. A mere five pages in Microsoft Word - shakes head-.

Huh. Maybe it's good thing that I wait a bit for the next chapter. That cliffhanger is just awesome. :)

-skitzo


	23. Chapter 23

**A/N** – K. So. Yeah. I left you hanging in the last chapter. You still there? Good. We'll talk later. On with the show!!

* * *

Danny crouched back down in a panic, wincing when the light of his transformation only gave more ideas to the now-suspecting boy sitting in the meadow. He flew up and out of the crater, turning invisible only after he realized Draco Malfoy was watching him.

He was furious with himself. Never, since he'd gotten these powers, was he so careless.

When he was about a foot above the forest, he heard Sam and Tucker rustling in the woods underneath him.

He swerved and dived directly towards them.

* * *

"Tucker, I don't think it's possible to grow wings on a human," Sam laughed. "Maybe with a bunch of magic, but that'd be totally fake."

"You're killing my buzz, Sam. And you can't possibly believe that it wouldn't be amazing to fly, but with _wings_," He complained. "With the wind flying all around you, and when it picks up—"

"You get hit by a plane or caught by mad scientists trying to experiment on you."

Tucker scowled. "See, this is why it's no fun to dream crazy things around you. You always have to bring in something morbid and depressing to ruin it."

"I'm a Goth, it's what I do."

Before Tucker could retort, a blurred gray and black form crashed at their feet, making Tucker shriek like a small girl.

Danny stood up from the ground, spitting out dirt and mud from the forest floor.

"Dude, what the hell?!" Tucker shouted at Danny.

Sam gasped and went to his side, wiping the grime off his face, but he brushed her flitting hands away, not seeming to feel the forming bruise on his forehead from the landing.

"We've got a problem," was the only thing he said.

* * *

"So what's the deal?" Hermione asked once Danny had dragged her, Ron and Harry from their lunch and brought them back to the common room. It was empty. The sun was shining brightly and the other Gryffindors were outside enjoying the day.

Danny was pacing in front of the fireplace, his eyes flashing from icy blue to brilliant green every time he huffed.

He kept pacing, ignoring Hermione's questions, not hearing anything.

Sam looked at Hermione apologetically before getting up from her chair. She walked to him nervously, and grabbed a hold of his hand, stopping him mid-stride.

His head snapped to hers, and the others winced at his furious expression. The look he was giving Sam made him look malevolent and scary. Like a _ghost_.

But Sam knew better and didn't break eye contact until his expression wore down to a less angered one. His eyes were still flashing.

"Sorry, Sam."

"It's okay," she assured him, rubbing his arm and sitting him in the chair she left vacant, sitting on the floor instead. "What happened?"

Danny sighed and they waited for his eyes to settle to blue. His breathing slowed, and he sighed, hanging his head. "Malfoy knows the secret."

There was a ripple of gasps around the common room as the others took this in. Tucker muttered a small "Well, _crap_!"

"How?" most of them asked at the same time?

Danny shook his head in disappointment. "You know when I left to find the ghost that set off my ghost sense?" He asked Sam and Tucker. They both nodded, and he continued. "Well, it was Ember. We bantered, and then fought, and she led me into a meadow. There was no one there except for some kid that was far enough to avoid, so I didn't pay any attention to him. I didn't bother to see who it could be. Anyways, she got away, but not before I smashed her stupid guitar and not before she ran me into the ground from about 400 feet in the air. There's a Danny Phantom-shaped crater in that meadow now.

"And when I was falling, I was clearly a ghost. When I got out of the crater, I was myself, and I didn't get a chance to get away before Malfoy got his eyes on me. And I saw that he knew."

A brooding silence fell over the group.

Tucker shook his head. "If he says anything, I swear I'll freaking kill him."

"No one's killing anyone," Hermione said. There was nothing on her face that showed she was used to hearing about Danny getting beaten around, or that he was beating back. "One of us needs to talk to him."

"I'll have a word with him," Ron said menacingly. "I'd love for a chance to chase the little ferret around. Care to join me, Tucker?"

He started to get up, but Hermione and Harry grabbed an arm each and sat him back down.

"I say Sam should talk to him," Hermione said.

Danny's head snapped to hers. "Why Sam?"

"Because you're the last person he probably wants to see, he hates me, Harry and Ron, and Tucker will probably break his nose when he sees him," she said reasonably, ignoring the jealous tone in his voice. "Besides, Malfoy…tolerates her, to some extent anyways. She's the only one that Malfoy refuses to ridicule, or haven't you been paying attention?"

Danny sank into his chair, crossing his arms and looking at the fire as if he wanted to jump in it.

Sam sighed and patted Danny on the arm, reaching up to kiss his forehead before standing up. "Well, I guess I'd better find him, then…where exactly was this meadow?"

"He's probably by the castle now. I saw him running out when I flew to find you guys."

She frowned and headed towards the exit. "I'll just look around until I find him. He's bound to be around somewhere."

* * *

Her first guess was that he was outside, probably walking aimlessly in shock. So she walked outside, headed towards the perimeter of the lake.

And, lucky enough, when she was in view of the lake, she saw Malfoy sitting by the edge alone, his hands on his head as if trying to clear an unpleasant mental image. She could only guess that the image was about Danny. And yet she couldn't suppress the smile that crossed her face when she found him.

She picked up her pace to a run, and before she reached him, he heard her and turned his head.

Their eyes made contact for about a second before he shot up and started walking in the opposite direction.

"Aw, crap," she said to herself. Out loud, she shouted, "Wait!"

He ignored her when she fell into step beside him, continuing his brisk stride towards a more secluded area away from the lake and the kids that surrounded it.

She huffed and grabbed his arm, whirling him around to face her. "I swear, if you walk away from me I'll punch you in the—"

"You know Danny's an effing _mutant_ thing, right?" he said angrily.

Sam winced. "Not a mutant…"

"Great!" he said sarcastically. "So you _do_ know. And you socialize with that thing?" His face blanched. "You _kiss_ that thing? I wouldn't bring my mouth anywhere _near_ him."

She narrowed her eyes dangerously. "Well thank goodness for that, then! Will you just listen to me before I kick your ass?"

He scowled at her and then began pacing in front of her, reminding her of Danny from just minutes before.

"He's not a mutant," she began. "He wasn't born this way."

"So enlighten me, Sam. What exactly turned your _boy_friend into whatever he is?"

She winced again. "I did."

He stop pacing, his back to her. He turned, and his expression was confused and shocked as he took what she had said in. "What do you mean—"

"His parents are ghost hunters. Not the same ghosts as the ones here; Muggle ghosts. They built a portal that led them to the Ghost Zone, and it didn't work at first. They plugged it in, but the power switch was off, and inside the portal. I convinced Danny to go in, and he did. And while he was in there, he turned it on by accident.

"There was a lot of light and screams from me, Tucker and mostly Danny. When he stepped out of the portal, he was a ghost. We thought he had actually died before he changed back to his normal self when his parents called his name. We pieced everything together later on."

She stopped, unsure of whether continuing would do any damage to Danny's well-being. But she found it was easy to talk to Malfoy, especially when he was quiet and listening.

"So…your boyfriend's half-ghost?" He seemed to be struggling to keep a polite tone in his voice.

Sam nodded. "You can't say anything, though. If I hear even a whisper about this—"

"I'm not going to say anything."

She backed up. "You're not?"

"No." He seemed to really mean it. His head turned to stare at her. "If you don't want me to say anything, I won't." he added sincerely.

Sam furrowed her eyebrows in slight suspicion. The Malfoy the others talked about would never have given into her request like that.

But the way he was looking at her canceled out every bad thing they had ever said about the blond boy she was standing with. She looked away for a second before letting her eyes find his again, blood flowing to her cheeks.

She wasn't sure how long they stood there, just staring. And even though she knew it wasn't right, that Malfoy was something she didn't want, she couldn't bring herself to look away. But eventually, their eyes tore apart.

"Yeah…well, I have to get back."

He nodded, his own face turning pink as well. "Yeah…so I'll see you around." It sounded more like a question.

She smiled. "Yeah. See you."

She turned around and marched straight for the forest, avoiding eye contact with everyone on the way. She scowled at the mantra playing over and over in her head, but it wouldn't go away.

_I do not have feelings for Draco Malfoy. I do not have feelings for Draco Malfoy…_

* * *

The view from the top of the castle was lame, especially in comparison to the world he had once ruled.

He rolled his eyes, aiming an ectoblast at a stray bird. It ignited and fell to the ground, feathers blazing. He laughed.

There was no use waiting here. The snake told him to watch and listen to himself, but young Daniel was boring. It'd be a lot more fun to swoop down and attack, to reclaim his position as ruler of world. But that wouldn't be according to plan, which wasn't acceptable, oh no. Everything must be according to plan. But it was easier to listen to the old snake than to massacre him. All of his followers would get upset, and it would take up 2 useful minutes of his life. Besides, he didn't die the last time, what if that happened again? It was easier this way. And if Clockwork's mirror was right, and if the chips fall in the right places, then his patience would be rewarded. He knew that.

Let the snake have his fun. He wouldn't be around soon anyways, even sooner if he had his way.

A mangled smile curled the corners of Dan Phantom's lips as he watched.**

* * *

A/N –** Alright, before anyone gets their torches and pitchforks, let me explain. I haven't updated since January. I've had one competition per month. All of them we just barely won (the most recent one was horrible; 1st in inspection, 3rd in exhibition, and _8th_ in regulation). We're kinda going nonstop, so I barely have any time for leisure, which includes writing and typing up chapters (to any of you guys reading Three Months, I'm posting the next chapter soon, so don't fret). I haven't gotten a good night's sleep in _weeks_. Reviews help :). Sorry about the length, or am I the only one who thinks this is short? Also, I still want book recommendations! PLEASE! I'm DYING, here! I haven't found anything decent in so long! :(

_Also_, check out the Hannah Montana movie! SERIOUSLY! I saw it, and it was amazing, even if you don't watch the show. Don't be haters. And the soundtrack is great (I know the whole freaking Hoedown Throwdown, lol). WOO!

-skitzo


	24. Chapter 24

**A/N** – yes, yes, it's been months since I've last updated, I know. More later.

* * *

Invisible people didn't make any shadows. Nor did flying, intangible people make any sound. And Danny saw this as a useful opportunity to _not_ spy on Sam.

Ignoring the many warnings Tucker was giving him about the last time this happened, he leapt up off chair and out the closest window, flying around and searching, his thoughts carefully blocking out Sam.

He flew around invisibly and intangibly for a few minutes before he saw Sam catching up to Malfoy.

He made a hairpin dive straight to them and stopped far away enough so she wouldn't notice his presence.

"…turned your _boy_friend into whatever he is?" Malfoy asked her angrily. Danny's knuckles cracked when he saw Sam wince.

"I did," she responded.

What was anger three seconds ago turned into shame and guilt.

Malfoy stopped pacing and looked back at her.

"What do you mean—"

Danny flew around the castle while she explained, letting the shame settle in so she wouldn't notice it later and so it wouldn't be so hard to deal with when the time came. He flew so fast that he was back before she finished.

"…screams from me, Tucker and mostly Danny," she and Danny cringed at the same time. "When he stepped out of the portal, he was a ghost. We thought he had actually died before he changed back to his normal self when his parents called out his name. We pieced everything together later on."

She stopped, her eyes shielded and full of secrets; Malfoy was quiet and like a sponge, sucking in every single bit of information in and saving it for later use. There was something else there, though—

"You can't say anything, though," he saw Sam threaten, her eyes narrowed. "If I hear even a whisper about this—"

"I'm not going to say anything," he replied sincerely.

Her eyes widened. "You're not?"

"No," he answered. Danny saw the hunger in his eyes more than anything else, and he had to remind himself that Sam would kill him if he swooped down and kicked the crap out of Malfoy for looking at _his_ girlfriend that way.

"If you don't want me to say anything, I won't," he continued.

They stared at each other, and Danny was almost ripped in two when he saw the same hunger in Sam's eyes. Not as evident, but it was definitely there. Her cheeks flushed.

"Yeah…well, I have to get back."

"Yeah…so I'll see you around?" Malfoy asked her.

She smiled. "Yeah. See you."

Danny followed her, watching her stomp around, shaking her head suddenly every couple of seconds. He desperately tried to break the barrier she held up in her mind, but it held strong.

And then, suddenly, the barrier collapsed and Sam shook her head again. Before it reformed, however, Danny caught a bit of the thoughts that were troubling her.

_I do not have feelings for Draco Malfoy…_

Danny stopped as if a brick wall had just been put in front of him, a pang in his heart dropping him ten feet.

He took a deep breath and watched her walk, replaying her thought over and over, kind of like what he knew she was doing, until she reached the edge of the forest. When she disappeared in the thickness of the trees, he swooped down and looked for her, landing in a tree ten feet away when he found her.

She look up suddenly and sighed.

"I know you're in there, Danny," she shouted.

He walked forward, letting go of his intangibility and invisibility. "Hi, Sam."

"Hi, Danny."

She wrapped her arms around his waist, fitting in like a puzzle piece.

So _why_ did she look at the Malfoy the way she did? And _what was with that thought_?

He grabbed her face tightly and kissed her soundly. When he pulled apart, they were both light headed.

She stared up at him. "What was that for?"

Danny shrugged.

Her eyes went from dark and mysterious to concerned. "How much did you hear?"

He grimaced. "You knew I was there," he accused.

The corners of her lips pulled up. "I'm Sam, I know everything."

He pulled away from her and started to pace, his feet leaving small singes on the dead leaves on the floor.

Her stomach dropped. "Danny, what's wrong with you?" He continued to pace. "Is it something I told Malfoy that you heard and didn't want me to say?" He didn't answer. "What's wrong?"

Danny's breath huffed out.

"Sam, you need to tell me now if you think this is right."

"If I think what's right—"

"This," he said, closing the distance between them and holding her arms. "Us," he grabbed her face and kissed her.

Sam's eyes widened. "What are you talking about, Danny?" Now her eyes held panic. "Of course I think it's right. Why…what would make you think it wasn't?" She stopped talking before the hysteria he could feel rising reached her voice.

"Are you sure, Sam?" he asked, pain in his voice.

"Yes, I'm sure, of course I am." She studied his face. "Why? Are…aren't you? What brought this on?"

His cold, gloved hands dropped from her face to her waist.

"The way he was looking at you…" he closed his eyes, but they glowed underneath his eyelids. "It took all of my self control to stop myself from kicking his ass."

Sam smiled. "You're jealous?"

Danny didn't return the smile. "The way you were looking back, though…"

Her smile fell and she looked down, away from his eyes.

"Sam," he said gently, "you need to be sure. I'll wait, if I have to. But don't be unhappy, especially not for me."

A rare tear slid down her cheek.

"I'm sure," she lied.

* * *

He carried her back to the common room and set her down gently. The white rings chilled her spine when he transformed. The others were gone.

Danny pulled her to the couch and laid across it, pulling her down with him, watching the fading embers.

She sighed constantly, and a couple of times she pulled her hand up to her face, but eventually her breathing slowed and she drifted off to sleep.

Danny heard the others return, but didn't move to wake up Sam. They walked in, only to walk out when they saw the morose face of the half-ghost sitting on the couch with his sleeping Goth girlfriend. They backed out quickly, all except Tucker, who walked forward without hesitation and sat himself at Danny's feet.

Danny met Tucker's eyes for a quick second before transforming and flying her up to the girls' dormitories. When he came back down, he sighed heavily and dropped against the wall at the foot of the stairs.

"Trouble in paradise?" Tucker asked.

Danny sighed again. "You have no idea, Tuck. You should've seen her when she was talking to Malfoy. She was…I don't know…they were both so…connected."

Tucker frowned.

"I don't think she knows exactly how much this relationship means to me," he went on saying. "With all this…crap, happening everywhere, she's the only one keeping me sane. I don't want to lose her, but I know she's not sure about this. I _know_ it. I heard it in her mind."

"She loves you, Danny," Tucker said. "I know she does. I may not have much experience in this field, but what you and Sam have is something special. Anyone can see it."

"Apparently Sam doesn't see it."

Tucker sighed and patted Danny on the shoulder. "Danny, if you can't see that Sam sees it, then you are a lot more clueless than I give you credit for."

They sat in silence as Danny took this in.

Finally, he spoke. "So what were you guys up to just now?"

Tucker smiled. "We found a place for the meetings."

* * *

"It's called the Room of Requirement," Tucker explained.

The two boys stood in front of a brick wall opposite a tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy's foolish attempt to train trolls for the ballet.

Danny stared blankly. "Right. How do we get in?"

"Uh, I think you need to ask it for something while walking past it."

Danny shrugged and started to pace across the wall. "So if I asked it for a high tech lab for paranormal studies," he said, "the room will give me—"

A large silver door appeared. Tucker looked smug.

They opened the door and walked in to a lab that looked exactly like his parents' lab, only with better equipment, more room, and no fudge stains. Walking out and closing the door behind them was a difficult task for Tucker after seeing all that technology.

"Okay, that was unbelievable," Danny said.

"You know, some would think that using magic, shooting ectoplasm from your hands and flying through walls would keep you from being unsurprised," said Tucker, smirking. "Maybe it's because you're so dense."

Danny scowled and flicked his beret off.

"So when are we telling everybody?"

"Harry, Ron and Hermione are around telling people right now."

Danny nodded. "What are _we_ going to teach them about ghosts? I mean should we even bother?"

Tucker shrugged. "It's up to you, dude. Me and Sam are going to back you up regardless."

They shared a look before continuing to pace again. A new door appeared, only this one was huge, black and ornate. Danny grabbed the handle and they both walked in.

The room was huge, with bookcases lined on all the walls, and instead of chairs, there were large cushions on the floor. A set of shelves at the far end of the room carried Dark Detectors; Sneakoscopes, Secrecy Sensors, the works.

"Wow."

"Yeah."

Tucker kicked a cushion with his foot. "These will definitely be good for when we practice with the ecto weapons."

There was another table at the end of the room, a huge sheet concealing what was underneath on the table.

"What's that?" Danny asked Tucker.

"I don't know, Harry didn't really give us much of a chance to look around."

They walked over and stood in front of the table, grabbing a hold of the cloth. Cautiously, he started to pull the sheet off. A green light omitted from through the sheets, and shone off of something into Danny's eyes.

Squinting, he removed the sheets, revealing a bunch of state-of-the-art, high tech, ecto energy consuming weapons.

Both Danny and Tucker gasped, their eyes widening as they took in the Holy Grail of ghostly technology, almost as good as the lab the Room of Requirement made.

Danny picked up a small ecto gun, one that wouldn't do much damage to a ghost rat. He turned his hand intangible and shot at it.

It prickled, and the spot where the shot made contact started to become tangible again.

Tucker shook his head. "For all you know, that could've been dangerous, and you could've died.

Danny smiled. "Or I could be standing here perfectly fine."

"I should tell Sam you shot yourself," Tucker teased.

"You wouldn't."

"Try me."

Tucker was sworn to secrecy while being held up by his ankles over one of the cushions. When Danny dropped him, they grabbed a cushions and pulled them to one of the shelves, picked a book, and started reading.

"This book is amazing, Danny. It's called the _Field Guide to the Paranormal_. It has every single ghost ever known to man. And alright, that's not a lot, but wow. Even _you're_ in it!"

Danny rolled his eyes. "Oh yeah, that's just what I need right now. More clues handed out to all the students at Hogwarts."

Tucker winced. "Sorry, dude, I forgot.

A frustrated tone entered his voice. "How is it possible that while I was in Amity, things like this never happened, but the second I step foot here there's already way too many people in on the secret?"

"Well, if you want to get technical about it, Dash knew even earlier and decided not to act upon his decisions…" his voice trailed off as he took in Danny's glare.

"I don't want to think about Dash. There's enough on my plate without him and his split personalities. How many books are there on ghosts?"

"Too many to count right now. There's a whole section of the bookshelves devoted to the paranormal."

Danny looked and grazed his fingers over the spines, stopping his finger suddenly when a title caught his eye.

"_Danny Phantom: The Bridge Between Our World, The Muggles, and the Ecto Universe_," he told Tucker.

His jaw dropped, and he froze in place.

"Oh…wow. That's unfortunate." Tucker pulled the book out and started skimming through the pages. "It says your birthday is March 4th. That's not…oh, right. The accident…" he started reading from the book.

"_Daniel James Fenton at the age of 14 stepped into an inactivate door to the Ecto Universe, activating it while he was still inside. The ectoplasm molded into his molecules, turning him into what most scholars call a ghost-human hybrid. Since then, more malevolent ectobeings have entered the human world, threatening to take over and exterminate the human race. Most just like to see how far they could push Fenton's buttons._"

Tucker looked up from the book. "So most of the ghosts we've fought just wanted to 'push your buttons, huh?"

Danny remained frozen.

"Ooh, look, they have a chapter for Ol' Vladdie." He cleared his throat. "'_Vladimir Masters, also known as Vlad Plasmius, was the first ghost-human hybrid to date. His accident was caused when an inactive door to the Ghost Zone exploded, and the radioactivity gave Masters Ecto Acne, a deadly disease that gives a victim in large, ectoplasmic filled boils. (More on Ecto Acne, see chapter 7.' _Dude, they're thorough."

Tucker walked over to one of the other cushions and sat down to read. "You have a birthmark shaped like Florida over your heart, green eyes, white hair, tan skin, your second aunt twice removed is a pharmacist from Kentucky, and her dog liked to eat everyone's left shoe. Why is that relevant?"

Danny was rubbing his temples now. "Great Aunt Ethel? She's my dad's aunt. She blew up our lab and almost caused a mini supernova in my basement. We don't talk about her much…" He sighed. "We need to destroy that thing."

He reached over to grab the book from Tucker, who held it out of his reach.

"Tucker, give me the book."

"No, not yet."

They glared at each other.

"What would be the point in keeping that book when you can just go right to the source?"

They were almost wrestling now.

"Because what if this book has more information about ghosts in general?" Tucker asked desperately.

"Why would it have stuff about other ghosts? It's a book about me."

"Ho, hum, Mr. Conceited. Just give me a second."

Tucker was sitting on Danny's back now, his arms pinned to the floor.

He started muttering stuff in the book until he found what he was looking for. "Powers, powers…Chapter for, section two…Okay, you have a ghost sense, ghost rays, beams, and energy balls, you can walk on walls, you fan fly, have super strength, and have enhanced senses." Tucker looked up. "Is that why your eyes always water when you come to my room? Whatever." He kept reading. "Ghostly wail and…Cryokinesis?"

"What?" Danny asked, the word muffled because his face was still in the floor.

Tucker furrowed his eyebrows. "It says you have the ability to control ice."

Danny went intangible and let Tucker fall back to the floor before sitting next to him. "Show me."

They both read the paragraph on the page together. Tucker started to speed read. "It's because of your ghost sense. There's a ghost in the Zone that's supposed to be able to help…Frostbite?" He inclined his head towards Danny. "You know him?"

Danny shook his head. "Huh. Interesting. I should start working on that."

A beeping noise came out of Tucker's pocket and he pulled out his green PDA.

"Lunch. Lets get out of here, shall we?"

They hid Danny's book behind one of the bookshelves, put the gun pack, placed the sheet on top of the table, and walked out, leaving a disappearing door behind them.

* * *

**A/N** – hmmmm me no like this chapter.

hehe…There's a good reason for why this is so late! Or maybe not. OH EM GEE. I haven't updated since before Nationals! –fail- Well, Nats was fun :) Uhm, after Nats I had school, then regents, then like a week of free time, then JCLC(JROTC Cadet Leadership Challenge, which was MADD fun! 5 incredibly long days of TORTURE!! :D), then camping, and now I'm in summer school (GAY). Oh, and this might have been up yesterday, but I was _pathetically crying over a boy_. So don't push my buttons too hard, K? I'm a little sensitive at the moment.

K so that's it. If you find anything wrong, please let me know, I was a little sketchy with the editing.

Peace out cub scouts.

-skitzo


	25. A Message:

**Author's Note** - I really hoped it wouldn't have to come to this.

It's about time I declared this story to be on HIATUS.

Because let's face it: I'm not going to be able to update this story for another couple of months, after Drill season is over, after I'm out of high school, when I actually have _time_ to write, edit and post up the next chapters.

I have a good idea about where this story is going, I just haven't had time to put it into words.

I love you all! And I'm soo sorry. :(

**-skitzofrenic**


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